A 42-YEAR-OLD man has been banned from keeping animals for a year after his dog died when he left it in a car on a hot summer day.

James MacDonald admitted causing unnecessary suffering to his Rottweiler at Banbury Magistrates court on Friday.

MacDonald, of Powder Mill Lane, Whitton, near Twickenham, was visiting a friend in Burford Road, Chipping Norton, in August when he left six-year-old Sasha in the car for at least an hour and 45 minutes.

Outside temperatures were higher than 22C on the day, and although passersby alerted the RSPCA and the police, the dog was dead before rescuers broke one of the car’s windows.

When a vet took the dog’s temperature it was too high to register on a thermometer which had a maximum reading of 42C.

MacDonald was also fined £250 and was ordered to pay £489 in costs, as well as a £15 court surcharge.