A man who left his dog in a hot car for about a half-hour while he went to the Naugatuck Walmart over the weekend was arrested, police said.
Andre S. Rodrigues, 46, of Naugatuck was charged with cruelty to animals and released on a promise to appear in Superior Court in Waterbury Sept. 10.
According to police, they received a report of a dog in a hot car in the parking lot of the Walmart Supercenter at 1100 New Haven Road about 10:45 a.m. Sunday. A dog inside the car was panting, and an animal control officers used an infrared thermometer to determine that the temperature was between 99.