Aug. 29 was a sad day for Des Moines police officers and dog lovers statewide. K-9 officer Brian Mathis left his canine partner Harley in the back of his squad car for over an hour, with all the windows up, on a 96-degree day. As a result, the 7-year-old yellow Labrador retriever died.

The Des Moines Police Department investigated the situation and concluded the case Tuesday: Police administrators will punish Mathis by giving him a three-day unpaid suspension. Des Moines Police Chief Judy Bradshaw said Mathis was torn up about the death of his partner Harley, especially since Harley was the Mathis family pet as well.

Mathis accidentally killed his dog, his friend, his partner and a fellow officer, as police tradition holds, and we have no doubt that this incident was an accident and that Mathis is as remorseful as possible. Nonetheless, the incident deserves greater punishment.

Police culture honors the police dog as a full-fledged officer. In many places, police dogs are sworn in by the city council, just as a human officer would be. They are given a funeral with full police honors when killed in action. And police dogs are honored by outside police organizations who keep track of national police deaths.

Anyone who kills a federal police dog is eligible for 10 years in federal prison. Most states have laws protecting police dogs, too. Iowa law, for example, says that the knowing and willful killing of a police dog is a class D felony, punishable by up to five years in state prison and a $7,500 fine.

Mathis may still be guilty of neglect resulting in the death of a police dog, which is at least a serious misdemeanor as codified in the Iowa Code: “A person who impounds or confines, in any place, an animal is guilty of animal neglect, if the person … kills an animal by any means which causes unjustified pain, distress or suffering.”

This case certainly qualifies as unjustified pain and suffering, and certainly this deserves more than a three-day unpaid suspension. The negligent death of a police dog is socially and ethically reprehensible, and illegal.

We are not suggesting that Mathis have the book thrown at him, but the law demands satisfaction. The community, and likely Mathis’ hurting heart, would be well served by convicting Mathis of the misdemeanor and sentencing him to community service in the local animal shelter. Everyone involved in this case — Brian Mathis, the Des Moines Police Department and the decent citizens of Des Moines — deserve better.

Because, after all, Harley deserved better.