Man who left his dog to die in van on hot day is facing jail

A callous dog owner who left his German Shepherd to die in the back of a van on one of the hottest days of the year is facing jail.

Youssef Alhassouni put the animal, called Django, inside a locked wooden box in the back of a Mercedes Vito van in Sandford, Somerset, while he went off to 'do some business.'

Despite it being 30C, the 26-year-old left Django to swelter for more than four hours with no access to water or ventilation.

It was only when a passerby heard the dog whimpering that the alarm was raised.

A police officer forced open the doors and opened the box to find Django had died.

A vet later confirmed the dog died from heat stress.

Alhassouni, from Liverpool, was later arrested for causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.

A court heard he had driven 270 miles from Liverpool to Sandford, near Wareham, Dorset, on July 30 this year with Django.

He left the car at 2pm and it wasn't until 6.11pm that police received a call from a member of the public who was concerned about a dog inside the van.

Elizabeth Valera, prosecuting, told magistrates in Weymouth: 'Django was a healthy German Shepherd dog owned by the defendant.

'On July 30 the defendant put the dog in a wooden box in the back of his van, secured the lid and went off to do some business in Poole.

'A member of the public heard a distressed dog in the back of the van and the police were called and they forced the doors and managed to get the top of the box open.

'Very sadly the dog was dead by that stage.

'The officer noticed the heat coming out of the box when he opened it. There was no ventilation at all and the recorded heat was 30C.

'The dog was sent off to a vet and they prepared a report. Their conclusion was that Django died from heat stress.

'He undoubtedly suffered severe distress both physically and mentally. A reasonable dog owner would have been aware that being exposed to this environment would cause distress, suffering and death.

'The defendant was interviewed about the matter. He said he parked the van between 12 and 1pm and left it around 2pm. He was in Poole for four or five hours.

'He said he had left Django in the back of the van previously and nothing had happened to him. He said the death wasn't intentional and that he felt bad about what happened.'

Alhassouni, who needed an Arabic interpretor when he appeared in court, pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal.

The court was told that the starting point for this a prison sentence.

Sentencing was adjourned and he will appear before magistrates in Liverpool next month.