Sheriff’s Officer Charged After Two K-9s Die in Hot Patrol Car

The Salem County Prosecutor’s Office announced Tuesday that Salem County Sheriff’s Officer Cody Henderson has been charged with recklessly causing the deaths of K-9s Rip and Boomer after leaving the animals in his K-9 vehicle for about seven hours.

Henderson, 41, was charged with two third-degree counts of purposefully, knowingly, or recklessly causing bodily injury to a living animal by failing to provide necessary care, resulting in death.

Henderson left them unattended inside an overheating police vehicle all day.

As an animal lover, writing about this awful situation makes me sick to my stomach.

Certainly, accidents do happen, but this total lack of responsibility from the dogs' handler and K-9 partner over the course of a day when temperatures reached into the 80s is just hard for me to believe.

Sheriff's Officer Charged in deaths of K-9s

Henderson was also charged with two counts of animal cruelty and  two counts of each of the following:

• Infliction of unnecessary cruelty upon a living animal by leaving the living animal unattended in a vehicle under inhumane conditions
• As a person charged with the care of a living animal, failure to provide the living animal with necessary care
• Unlawful cruel restraint of a dog in a manner that exposes the dog to adverse environmental conditions for more than 30 minutes

 The prosecutor’s office said the vehicle was not left running, the windows were closed, and the emergency alert system to avoid a situation such as this in the K-9 vehicle was not turned on that day.

The officer could have brought the dogs into the inside kennels in the basement of the courthouse instead of leaving them in the hot car.

 Officer Drove Dogs to Delaware Vet After Finding Them

Henderson returned to his vehicle later in the day.

The Salem County Prosecutor's Office says that Henderson found K-9s Rip and Boomer dead in his vehicle; he drove them to an animal hospital in Delaware.

A necropsy determined that death was likely the result of hyperthermia/heat stroke, according to the affidavit.

Boomer, a 6-year-old springer spaniel, specialized in bomb detection and joined the sheriff’s office in 2021.

Rip was a nearly 3-year-old Belgian Malinois. The dog started his K-9 academy training in 2023 with his handler, Sheriff’s Officer Cody Henderson.