DO NOT LEAVE YOUR PETS IN THE CAR
*Disclaimer - This image is not the dog we rescued!
I just came back from lunch with my staff (beautiful day to have lunch on the patio) and we noticed a dog (a terrier) in the back of a station wagon. The weather in Waterloo is about 27 degrees Celsius (80.6 Fahrenheit) and sunny. Inside an actual car it can reach well above 40 degrees (104 Fahrenheit). Hot weather equals no pets in the car (unattended).
As we walked by the parked car the terrier jumped up and was panting like he had just finished a marathon. He was clearly in distress and was trying to find any sort of shade or shelter from the sun. I felt horrible as I watched this dog melting in the heat of the afternoon sun. Mike and I looked at the dog and instantly put a plan into action. We thought about breaking the window but feared legal ramifications, so instead we headed to the police station (less than a 100 metres from our office and less than 300 metres from the parked car). As we approached the station, a police officer was heading out on patrol and we stopped him to explain the situation. He assured us that we would go over to the car and wait for the people to return.
Mike and I followed him to the car and chatted with him further. He explained that the dog is warm but fine. He said that the dog would be okay and that he would wait for a few minutes. We decided to head back to the office and felt confident that he would take care of the situation. Before we entered our office building we turned back to find the police officer gone and the car with the dog still there. “Are you kidding me?!” I can’t believe that the officer just left the dog there. At this point we were extremely frustrated and decided to call our local humane society (what we should have done in the first place). Within five minutes the humane society arrived and agreed with our opinion that the dog was in distress and needed to be removed from the vehicle.
The Waterloo Public Library is located directly across the street from the parking lot and we had a hunch that the person who owned the car was visiting the library. Our hunch was right, the person was inside the library. We had the librarian make an announcement regarding the license plate and sure enough the owner appeared. 40 minutes later, the dog was rescued! I wish that we could have freed the dog sooner! According to the humane society officer, the car was reading 40 degrees Cecilius and it only takes 15 minutes under those conditions for brain damage to occur. Once the owner appeared, he became rude and belligerent to the enforcement officer. I wish that he had the authority to remove the dog permanently. Some people should not have pets!
BOTTOM LINE: Please Do Not Leave Your Pets in the Car!
If you see a distressed animal, make the call. You can call the operator to get the number of the humane society or even the police (although if in waterloo I would call humane society first, they took our call more serious than the police did). I encourage you to actively help rescue distressed animals. An animal locked in the car has has no choice in the situation and is forced to swelter in the heat!
I am happy that our efforts saved the dog from any further suffering.
Sorry to vent EcoSherpa readers, I needed a way to release some frustration and spread the word about the dangers of leaving animals in parked cars.
Written by steve on May 23rd, 2007 with 9 comments.
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