Yesterday, Cocoa Police department released a statement after one of there K-9’s was found dead in the back of a patrol car by his handler.

Derek Middlesworth, the previous owner of ‘Zena’ released the following statement today.

“My family and I were the previous owners of this dog and based on the information I have gotten from police officers from of this county, the car ,she was left in, was very old and all the mechanisms that are supposed to keep a dog in the car alive failed. The A/C failed and so did all the other fans and emergency mechanisms in the police car so K-9 dogs do not die if left alone. How do you put a car like this in service and on top of that leave the dog unsupervised.

You are risking the dogs life and because of this Zena is now dead. This is absolutely heartbreaking to me and my family, to say the least and someone needs to be responsible for this. The maintenance records for this police car that she was left in needs to be released. I also do not understand how you do not check up on the dog here and there when leaving her in the car alone. This is very frustrating to say the least and someone needs to be held accountable.

This was such a special dog and she did such great things for the police force she served for. She dedicated her life for this and is now dead because of her being left in a car that was likely not maintained and checked up on enough. You were a special dog”