(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- There will be a vigil Thursday evening in Lake Station, Indiana for the 10 German Shepherds that died last week in the back of a box truck that police said had lost air conditioning.
Jenny Webber, executive director of the Humane Society of Hobart, has organized the event to mark the tragedy, which she says “has shaken our community to the core.”
Her organization works with Lake Station and was present July 27 after Michigan-based K-9 trainer and retired police officer Mike McHenry stopped his truck at a gas station along I-94 because he heard dogs barking.
There were 19 dogs in the back. The air conditioning had failed without his knowledge, he told police, and the dogs were suffering heat stroke.
Police – acting on McHenry’s demands, Webber says -- refused to allow the Humane Society to care for the surviving dogs.
Police have refused to discuss it. So has McHenry.
Webber, who says there were multiple code violations by police, is calling for an independent investigation. She’s meeting with the department this week.
The advocacy group PETA says it sent a letter to Lake Station Mayor Bill Carroll and the city’s council members asking that the police department recuse itself from the case.
The vigil for the dogs that didn’t make it takes place at 7 p.m. Thursday at Riverview Park in Lake Station.
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