K9 Ado

Ado

K-9 Ado died of heat exhaustion after being left in his handlers vehicle for a period of time.

K-9 Ado's handler 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, the officer 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. A pilot for KTVK Channel 3's news helicopter, 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.

In 1987 the Maricopa County 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 air conditioning off. Even with the truck in the shade and the window slightly open the heat was too much. Because of this incident, covers were put over all air conditioning controls and the K-9 vehicles were equipped with heat alarms/pagers.