A Hanoverton man is being summoned before a judge to answer allegations that he left his dog inside a truck on a hot day while he ate dinner at a Salem restaurant.

Delton Weaver, 24, is scheduled to appear in Columbiana Municipal Court on September 21 for arraignment on a misdemeanor charge of violating Ohio’s prohibitions concerning companion animals.

According to a complaint filed in court, a Salem Police officer found Weaver’s truck parked outside a State Street restaurant late Sunday afternoon.

The officer says the truck wasn’t running and all the windows were closed. The outside temperature was 87 degrees, says the report.

When the dog’s owner came out of the restaurant and opened the truck’s door, the officer noted that it was too hot inside the truck to leave the dog inside.

The report says that Weaver told the officer that he had left the dog inside the truck before.

Weaver was charged under a provision that makes it illegal to negligently confine a companion animal without affording it access to shelter from heat.

The Cambridge, Massachusetts Animal Commission says animals will overheat in a hot car even if the windows are cracked open. On an 80-degree day, the inside of your car can reach 100 degrees in just 10 minutes.

Pets do not sweat the way humans do. They cannot cool their bodies efficiently in hot temperatures.