A blind and deaf Long Island woman has lost her beloved guide dog after a trainer left the dog in a hot van for more than five hours, reports say.
Michelle Krupa told CBS New York that Labrador retriever Milton is her “guardian angel.”
“He was next to me the whole time,” Krupa said. “I’m so sad because I just don’t know how I’m going to go on without him.”
Guide Dog Foundation staff told Krupa that the three-year-old black lab was left in the van from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Friday, July 22, when temperatures topped 90 degrees, according to the report.
The heartbroken dog mom told WPIX-11 that she spent 15 years looking for the right dog before the nonprofit Guide Dog Foundation found Milton.
Trainers employed by the foundation had planned to take him for a walk the day he died, but plans changed and they forgot they had taken Milton to the car, Krupa said.
“It was hot. Plans have been changed. And they left him in the van like he was going out,” she told the station.
“They said they thought nothing like this could ever happen. And that’s the problem. You cannot rely on humans to be perfect when they are not.
Her “furious” husband Tom took to Facebook to mourn the impact the dog’s death will have on his wife.
“He was more than a guide dog, he was part of our family. He was Michelle’s outlet to the outside world and my pet,” wrote Tom Krupa.
“He gave Michelle the ability to come out wholeheartedly and trust in herself and the world that he was protecting her. Now he is gone, and although it was a tragic accident, she faces the world and alone again,” he continued.
“Milton, maybe I haven’t told you this often enough, but I and we love you. Rest in peace my good boy, one day we will see you again.”
The Krupas are likely to get their next guide dog from the same organization – which said in a statement it “took immediate steps to review this tragic event to mitigate the risk of it happening again”.
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