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
47 comments.
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#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.