MIDDLETOWN -- Police have charged a 79-year-old man with cruelty to animals after police said he left his dog in a hot car and the dog later died.
On Tuesday, Middletown Animal Control officers said they responded to a report of a missing three-year-old Labradoodle named Jennie.
"Further investigation revealed that Jennie was deceased. Jennie’s owner, David Beveridge intended to bring the dog to a doggie daycare around noon before heading to work, instead went straight to work leaving Jennie in the parked car on Lawn Avenue," said police.
Beveridge is a retired chemistry professor at Wesleyan University. He was arrested Tuesday evening and is set to appear in court on July 24.
Temperatures on Tuesday were in the 90s and humid.
Beveridge told officers that he remembered that he did not bring the dog to the doggie daycare and ran out to the car to check on the dog. When Beveridge went to check on the dog, it was dead.
"During the investigation the animal control officer learned that Beveridge brought the deceased dog to the local veterinarian. The veterinary technician was extremely upset because Jennie was not the first dog that died because Beveridge left it in the car," according to police.
Police said Beveridge had a dog named Charlie that he left in a car in 2014. The dog was a four-year-old poodle mix. The investigation is ongoing and anyone with any information is asked to contact the Middletown Animal Control Officers at 860-638-4030.