The deaths of eight dogs that became overheated in a city animal control truck has some animal welfare activists calling for the animal control officer to be fired.

The dogs were left in the truck while the officer went to lunch
on August 26th. The high in Houston on that day was 95 degrees.
The officer has told Bureau of Animal Care and Regulation officials that the air conditioning was working on her truck when she went to lunch but malfunctioned.

The Houston Chronicle reports the department is investigating
because the air conditioning was working when the officer returned
to the shelter with the dogs.
The officer has been assigned to duties within the shelter while
the investigation is conducted.

Activist Sherry Nassar said in an e-mail to the newspaper that,
quote, "In any other work setting, an employee who screws up this
bad would be fired."

A spokeswoman for the city health and human services department,
Kathy Barton, said it's, quote, "a mechanical issue or a human
failure issue."