Ado and Officer Kentera had just completed
training with Pat Beltz at the K-9 Academy in Palm Springs, California,
which Ralph Pendergast also went through to be a trainer. After graduation that summer, Ado and Officer Kentera were assigned to Assist Lake Patrol and work the Canyon and Apache
Lakes area from 1600-2400 hours. The day of Ado's death, Officer Kentera arrived at the Canyon lake aid station for briefing and to finish paperwork, leaving Ado in the patrol vehicle parked under the carport in the shade with the hood up and AC on. After returning to the vehicle Officer Kentera found Ado down and barely breathing. He got him out of the blazer and called for help. A nurse at the aid station came out and they dumped water on him and she started an IV. Jerry Foster,
KTVK Channel 3's helicopter pilot at the time, was at the Saguaro Lake aid station and offered to fly them to the vet. He flew over to Canyon lake, picked them up and flew to a vet in Scottsdale where they got Ado stabilized and transferred him to their regular vet the next day where he died from complications from the heat stroke.
Back then their patrol vehicles didn't have a cage or heat alarms for the interior. Ado got up to the front seat area, maybe while barking at someone and shut the AC off. Even with the truck in the shade and the window slightly open the heat was too much. From this incident covers were put over the AC controls and the vehicles were equipped with heat alarms/pagers.
|
