Two dogs died inside a hot vehicle in northeast Bexar County after their owner allegedly placed them in the car intending to take them for a walk, then went inside, started drinking, and fell asleep, according to the Bexar County Sheriff's Office. A neighbor discovered the dogs in the vehicle and called deputies, who arrested 34-year-old Joseph Paz at his home on Woodlake View.
Paz allegedly told investigators he had put the two medium-sized dogs in his vehicle planning to walk them, but instead entered his home, began drinking alcohol, and fell asleep, forgetting the animals were still in the car, per the sheriff's office. As reported by WOAI, a female resident in the area discovered the two dogs deceased inside the vehicle before deputies were called to the scene. Paz was booked on two felony counts of animal cruelty and was arrested at the Woodlake View address.
The incident happened as South-Central Texas endured brutal late-summer heat. San Antonio's official weather observations recorded an afternoon high of 98°F that day, with heat index values topping 100°F across the region, according to Weather Underground. Conditions like that turn a parked car into a death trap within minutes, not hours.
How Fast a Car Turns Deadly
A vehicle's interior temperature can climb roughly 20°F in just 10 minutes and nearly 30°F in 20 minutes, exceeding 115°F within an hour even when outside temperatures sit in the 80s or 90s, according to research published by the American Veterinary Medical Association. Cracking the windows does not meaningfully slow that heat buildup or provide enough air movement to prevent heatstroke in a trapped animal. Bexar County Animal Control ultimately picked up both deceased dogs from the scene.
Paz was booked on two felony counts of animal cruelty and bonded out of jail on Monday with bond set at $12,000, per jail records cited by the San Antonio Express-News. Because the incident happened in unincorporated northeast Bexar County rather than within San Antonio city limits, the case falls under the jurisdiction of the Bexar County Sheriff's Office Animal Crimes Enforcement Unit rather than city animal control, which typically handles calls inside city limits through 311.
What Paz Could Face If Convicted
Under Texas Penal Code § 42.092, unreasonably failing to provide necessary care or confining a non-livestock animal in a cruel manner that results in death or serious bodily injury is prosecuted as animal cruelty, according to the SPCA of Texas. Each count Paz faces is a state jail felony, which under Texas Penal Code § 12.35 carries a mandatory sentence range of 180 days to two years in a state jail facility along with a fine of up to $10,000 per count, served day-for-day without parole eligibility, per the Harris County Managed Assigned Counsel. If convicted, Paz would also be barred from owning or exercising control over any animal for five years under Texas Penal Code § 42.107, a statute enacted through House Bill 598, according to Saputo Toufexis Criminal Defense; violating that ban would itself constitute a separate criminal offense. These charges remain allegations, and Paz's guilt or innocence has not been determined by a court.
Part of a Wider Enforcement Push
The case adds to a string of hot-car pet deaths that have drawn felony charges across the country this year, including a similar case in Old Hickory hot-car case and another in Oklahoma City where a dog was found in a 160-degree car outside a retail store. Locally, Bexar County law enforcement has ramped up animal cruelty enforcement in recent months. San Antonio Animal Care Services' dedicated cruelty unit filed 35 criminal cases between October 2025 and February 2026 alone, already exceeding total filings for all of fiscal year 2025. The Bexar County Sheriff's Office has also conducted broader proactive operations, including a February raid in southwest Bexar County targeting animal cruelty and illegal animal operations that used both ground and air support. Federally, the FBI classifies animal cruelty as a Group A felony within its National Incident-Based Reporting System, tracking it alongside homicides and aggravated assaults due to research linking animal abuse to broader violent crime trends.
