Police officer's desperate attempt to save dog left in hot car captured in bodycam footage

Ross McGuinness
·3 min read

WARNING: Graphic video - Two dogs left to die in hot car in east London

WARNING: Graphic images below

This is the horrifying moment police discovered two dogs left to die in a hot car in east London.

Video footage shows officers finding one of the dogs already dead in the back of an estate car in Ilford.

In the clip, they try to rescue the other dog, which was still breathing, by rushing it to a nearby vet’s, but it later had to be put down.

The dogs’ owner, security worker Richard Armstrong, 47, was convicted this week of causing unnecessary suffering to the two animals.

He claimed he had complaints from neighbours in nearby Plaistow about their barking so left them in the car instead of their kennel.

Hector after he was left to die in a hot car by Richard Armstrong. See SWNS story SWNNdogs. A security worker left two dogs to die in a hot car for more than two hours because neighbours complained about their loud barking. Richard Armstrong, 47, left the pair of security dogs shut in the boot of his Vauxhall Astra estate on a hot April day when temperatures hit around 24C. Passers-by saw the animals in the back of the vehicle in Ilford, east London, and called police who found one of the dogs dead in his kennel in the boot, while the second was collapsed but still breathing. Hector and Yardie - both Belgian Malinois used for security work - were kept in the back of the vehicle with a fan running to try and keep them cool.
Hector, a Belgian Malinois security dog, was found dead in the back of a car in east London. (SWNS)

Security dogs Hector and Yardie, both Belgian Malinois, were left in the boot of the Vauxhall Astra estate vehicle for more than two hours on a hot day in April 2019 when temperatures reached 24C.

Passers-by saw the dogs in the back of the vehicle and called police.

They had been left in the back of the car with a fan running.

The RSPCA said the kennel in the boot was just large enough for one dog to stand, but without room to turn or move around.

There was no water in either kennel and Hector was found dead lying on his side with flies around his mouth amid a strong smell of urine and faeces, the RSPCA said.

Armstrong was convicted at Ilford Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday and was sentenced to a 12-month community order with 120 hours of unpaid work and ordered to pay costs of £750 and a victim surcharge of £90.

RSPCA inspector Kate Ford said in her statement to the court: "These dogs had been left in the vehicle for a period of time, possibly in excess of two hours and the temperature at that time this afternoon was around 24C.

"I saw in the boot section of the car there were two separate dog cages/kennels.

“One was empty with diarrhoea towards the back of it. In the other was a deceased Malinois type dog called Hector.

"The kennel was just about large enough for the dog to stand in but there would not have been room for him to turn or move around.

Hector after he was left to die in a hot car by Richard Armstrong. See SWNS story SWNNdogs. A security worker left two dogs to die in a hot car for more than two hours because neighbours complained about their loud barking. Richard Armstrong, 47, left the pair of security dogs shut in the boot of his Vauxhall Astra estate on a hot April day when temperatures hit around 24C. Passers-by saw the animals in the back of the vehicle in Ilford, east London, and called police who found one of the dogs dead in his kennel in the boot, while the second was collapsed but still breathing. Hector and Yardie - both Belgian Malinois used for security work - were kept in the back of the vehicle with a fan running to try and keep them cool.
Hector, a Belgian Malinois security dog, was left to die in a hot car in east London in April 2019. (SWNS)

"There was no evidence of any water in either kennel. Hector was lying on his side with flies around his mouth. There was a strong smell of urine and defecation around him.”

She said Armstrong told her he had left the boot open for the dogs, but that he claimed the animals’ jumping must have closed it.

Footage from the police officers’ body-worn cameras showed them rushing Yardie to the vets with blue lights and sirens on, pouring water on her body to try to cool her and carrying her into the surgery.

Vets gave her oxygen and fluids and desperately tried to save her.

In a statement, a vet said Yardie had suffered from hypothermia, muscle tremors, an irregular heart rate and a body temperature of 40.3C.

Vets felt she would not recover and sought permission from Armstrong to put Yardie to sleep.