I can see firing the guy, but sending someone to prison over a dog is evil. It’s a dog. Get another one.
you forgot the sarc tag.
You’re wrong. First off, any citizen would be in jail for the same thing. For that alone he should cool his heels behind bars for a bit.
Secondly, taxes paid for that dog. You can’t “just get another one” as easily as you seem to think, because it’s a highly trained animal, and only a certain number are bred and are of the calibre needed to succeed in the training. This makes them quite expensive!
Thirdly, and most importantly...this guy tortured an animal to death that trusted him and depended on him for her well being. Most likely she went to her death thinking “Where is my person?”, trusting utterly that the officer would come rescue her, because that’s the nature of dog.
He may not have directly laid his hands on her, but allowing her to cook to death in the car is torture regardless. If you can’t find it in your heart to understand he gave a trusting beast an awful death, then consider it destruction of property, just as if he had smashed up his cruiser carelessly.