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In this heat, leave pets home
Hot dogs suffer while owners run errands, animal warden warns.
Date published: 7/19/2006
By LAURA MOYER Four times this summer, Fredericksburg Police Officer Tom Worthy has testified in court about dogs left in hot cars. His latest trip was yesterday, he said, when he testified about a pit bull left for hours in a parked car last month while its owner visited Mary Washington Hospital. By the time the dog was rescued, the car's inside temperature was 108 degrees. That dog was lucky, Worthy said, and wasn't permanently harmed. But dogs and cats left in hot cars risk heat exhaustion, stroke, brain damage or death, according to the Humane Society of the United States Web site. Since dogs and cats can't perspire, they can get rid of excess heat only by panting or through the pads of their paws, the Web site said. In the most recent court case, Worthy said, the dog's owner was found guilty of animal neglect, a class 4 misdemeanor. The four court cases Worthy noted are only the tip of the heatberg. Worthy--who serves as the city's game and animal warden--said he has investigated dozens of dog-in-car calls this summer, "and it's not even August." As temperatures stalled out near 100 degrees yesterday, Worthy called the paper to make a plea to dog lovers anywhere: When it's this hot, don't take the dog. Sure, the dog wants to go. But if it could weigh the joy of a ride in the car against the misery of sitting in a stifling heat box, he speculated, "the dog would say, 'That's all right. I'll stay home in the air conditioning.'" Two of the city's high complaint spots are the parking lot outside Wal-Mart in Central Park and at Mary Washington Hospital, Worthy said. "If you're going into the hospital or Wal-Mart, you're not going to be quick," Worthy said. And, he said, "Cracking the windows 2 or 3 inches doesn't do a whole lot of good when it gets this hot, this humid." Owners who come back to find upset witnesses and an officer invariably say they were only away from their cars for a minute, or five, or 15. That was the case when a man recently returned to his car and dog to find Worthy waiting in the hospital lot. "He said he was only in there 15 minutes. But it was a black dog, in a black vehicle, with a black interior. That's an oven," Worthy said. People who come across dogs left in cars should call the police, then wait for an officer to arrive, Worthy said. If the dogs are panting but still alert and attentive, they probably can wait briefly for help but should be monitored. Good Samaritans aren't advised to open a car door and risk getting bit, or risk liability if the dog bolts. But "at the point where a citizen feels the animal is in imminent danger they have to make that decision," said city police spokesman Jim Shelhorse. To reach LAURA MOYER:
Date published: 7/19/2006
It's sad
(posted by
savy42
, Sep. 25, 2007 2:41 pm)
that this isn't just common sense information and that it actually needs to be printed in the paper. And yet, despite this article there are still going to be idiots that leave their pets in their hot cars. I have four dogs, and in weather like this they don't even stay in the backyard for longer than five minutes before I am bringing them in. It's just too hot. Please for the love of God don't leave your pets in the car.
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