DO NOT LEAVE YOUR PETS IN THE CAR

“Gee” Rabe
#1. May 29th, 2007, at 10:11 PM.

ARGH! I’m glad your story had a good ending, for the most part. I am in a rush - have to get to work. I just had a similar encounter at a local pharmacy. Someone left their beautiful white German shepherd in their parked car. The windows were cracked a little bit and the car was in direct sunlight. Here in Culver City (L.A.) it’s really hot right now….I paged the owner of the car in the pharmacy, and as I left a note on the car (on an animal advocacy postcard!), the owner came up, took the card, and was in disbelief. I basically said “do NOT lock your dog up in a hot parked car - you will be reported!” She came up to my mom & I & said, “I was in the store for 7 minutes” (wrong - my mom was in the store for at least 15 mins., she was gone longer than my mom) - then she said that she does animal rescue, etc., she was gone for a short time, there’s water in the car, she can’t bring the dog with her, etc….my mom & I said, you NEVER leave your dog in a parked car in this weather EVER for any length of time! She did NOT seem to understand that, said we were being negative, appreciated our concern, she knows what she is doing
and so forth….she was concerned about being reported. I told her I would report this if the owned had not come much sooner….anyway, she was just in total denial that she did anything wrong. Did I overreact? It just seemed ridiculous, and even more so if the girl does animal rescue. GRRRRRRRRRRR.

“Gee” Rabe
#3. May 30th, 2007, at 10:14 PM.

Dear Steve, thanks for letting me vent! Even today I’m still disturbed over what many people would think is not a big deal. To me it was also disgusting that the girl claimed to do animal rescue - if that’s the case, she certainly wouldn’t be a good role model to others….and then she had the nerve to say I was being negative about the situation! I didn’t yell or anything, just simply stated to her to never leave a dog in a parked car like that & I will report someone who does that. Anyway, I’m glad you don’t think I over-reacted. I hope others feel the same. Thanks so much and best wishes!

Susi S.
#4. June 3rd, 2007, at 7:57 PM.

As an experienced dog person for 30 years (owner/breeder/handler of Pulik), I was the last person one would have expected to have a dog locked in a car - but it happened to me and all because of how newer cars are being built. In the time it took me to put my dog in my car, accidentally drop my keys on the front seat and close the door to load items into the back seat, my dog stepped on the internal door lock and effectively locked himself in and me out. With no purse, no cell phone and certainly no spare key, I was at the mercy of surrounding merchants to help me call for aid. I was astonished and dismayed that it took so long for anyone - police, AAA, or a lock smith to respond to a call specifying that a dog would soon be in distress. My story ended well, but it might have gone terribly bad had not someone gotten to my dog in time. I now know to stash an extra key to the car somewhere ON the car. Susi at www.KnobNots.com

Lisa
#5. July 2nd, 2007, at 1:03 AM.

Something similar just happened to me a couple of hours ago. I was at a mall here in the Sacramento, California area and it was very hot day. About 94 degrees farenheit. We were walking back to our car when we spotted a note on the windshield of a car chastising the owners for leaving their dog in the car. We looked inside and sure enough there was a small chuiuahua panting heavily. They had the windows cracked but it was certainly not enough. I went back into the closest store and called mall security, they said they would send an officer to meet me at the car. We waited for about 20 minutes for the officer to come and watched multiple other people look into the car with concern. Finally I chased a security officer down and just as he pulled up behind the car a couple approached and took the note off the car and proceeded to get in. The security officer did not say a thing to them. So I said “You can’t leave your dog in the car in this weather.” The female just looked at me and said “We just went to get a salad.” It had been over a half hour since I had seen the dog, I didn’t know how long he had been there before that. I told her that it can take just 20 minutes for her dog to die. She and her companion did not seem to care at all. I should have taken down her licence plate. She did not deserve to be a dog owner!!

Bill
#6. July 5th, 2007, at 1:51 AM.

While at the local shopping mall I frequently see animals in vehicles unattended. Sometimes the window is down but not always.

Who can I report this to and is there ever anything done about it? As far as the owner of the pet?

Thank you

Kath McStay
#7. July 29th, 2007, at 2:10 PM.

I have found myself in that situation three times. Once. weirdly.. I had picked up my phone bok before leaving for the mall… my sister thought I was crazy.. so did I..but
Reaching the mall I parked next to a dog locked in a car, in the heat.
The dog was clearly in distress….
I had a cell phone, used the phone book to call the humane society which was half a mile away, and the dog officer was there almost instantly.
I was timing the whole thing.. and it was half an hour between the time that I arrived and the time the owner came out.. saying he was gone 10 minutes.. Thank goodness Jack was there and was able to confirm that it had been much longer…

After that it happened twice, and I called 911 each time and waited with the police.

I love taking my dog with me… and I do it often.. but never when there is a chance I have to leave him in the car.. twice I have locked him in the car with it running ( extra key) … and the a/c on… but both of these times it was for less than three minutes and I was in sight of the car… and it was an unplanned stop…

once to drop a payment into a payment box for the newspaper..
( i had forgotten to mail it and was passing the office )
once to run into the post office and drop letters into the slot..
there had been vandalism to the box outside on the street and it was unusable that day .

things happen.. but we have to be mindful of our friends… they depend on us….

Christy Mann
#8. July 30th, 2007, at 9:12 PM.

Sad. Very sad. In the town I used to live in, people would actually get animal cruelty fines! I lived in an apartment above the main street, and was a frequent caller of the police. And they came, sometimes too late, but they did write tickets to the owners.

Sad part is, people do this to their own children too…I have two girls, two dogs, and two cats… I just simply don’t take them with if I know I am going into a store! Walgreen’s even has a dern drive thru! I do take my small dog with when I go thru the bank or Walgreen’s! They give out treats!

Tiger Tiger
#9. January 21st, 2008, at 6:37 PM.

It’s good that you’re spreading the word — some dog owners are so irresponsible! We’ve got a lot of politics going on in our town where dog owners are trying to get an off-leash park and other things that would be good for responsible dog owners, but irresponsible owners have caused a series of incidents which have set the cause back.