Owners fined £3,000 for leaving dog to die on the hottest day

Two cruel dog owners have been fined £3,000 after they let one of their pets suffocate in the boot of their car while they went shopping on the hottest day of the year.

Paul Wadsworth, 33, and his wife Aisling, 32, left their two 11-stone Newfoundlands for nearly five hours in July - when temperatures outside reached 36.5C.

When the couple returned to their Hyundai estate, they discovered one of the dogs, Harry, was bartely alive and the other, Homer, was dead.

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Temperatures inside the car boot, which measured just one metre squared, were estimated to have reached over 40C.

The couple were fined £1,500 each at Swindon Magistrates Court and ordered to pay a total of £2.060 in costs.