Las Vegas woman charged after leaving dog in hot SUV a second time

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – Three days after retrieving her dog from Clark County Animal Control, a 25-year-old Las Vegas woman is accused of leaving the same dog in the same hot SUV in a second incident.

Alexandra Evans, 25, is being held on $ 3,000 bail at the Clark County Detention Center on charges of putting the animal – a tiny white dog named Rio – at risk. Evans is due to appear in court on July 26th.

The officers responded to the July 9 call about a dog trapped in an SUV outside the goodwill store at Block 9300 on W. Flamingo Road. The dog should gasp and bark heavily. The vehicle did not run and all the windows were up when the temperature reached 111 degrees, according to an arrest report from the Metro police.

The officers arrived, broke open the passenger window of the SUV and took the dog away.

Police went into the store and found Evans, who said she was the owner of the dog. She said she had only been inside for 10 minutes but her boyfriend had taken the keys to the SUV.

Alexandra Evans (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department)

An animal rights officer who responded to the scene recognized Evans and informed officers that she was caught in a similar incident on June 27. During that investigation, the dog was left in the same SUV outside the Wild Wild West Casino on West Tropicana Avenue around 10:20 a.m.

Evans was arrested and charged with maliciously torturing a dog.

Officials found that the temperature inside the SUV when the dog was rescued was around 113.

Animal Control then took possession of Rio.

“On July 21, 2007, Evans met with Clark County Animal Control Officers from the Animal Foundation, where she reclaimed Rio and was cited by Animal Control for the incident,” the arrest report said.

The second call to the rescue of the dog came just three days later on July 9th outside the goodwill store.

“Heat stroke in dogs can occur within 15 minutes of exposure to these conditions,” the arrest report said. “With an outside temperature of 100 degrees Fahrenheit, it only takes 15 minutes for the inside of a locked vehicle that is not running with air conditioning to reach 140 degrees Fahrenheit.”