Some people just don't get it.
Do NOT leave your dog in your car. Period.
These kinds of stories are becoming all too common, and it frightens me to think that pet owners can be so ignorant of a basic tent: Just as a child can die in a hot car, so can a dog.
In Washington state last week, a woman left her black Labrador Retriever in her car for several hours on a hot day on Bainbridge Island. The outside temperature was between 70 and 80 degrees. Inside her car, with the windows rolled up, police estimated it was at least 110 degrees.
The woman told police later that she had been out with her dog in the morning and returned home about 11 a.m., forgetting that the dog was inside the car. She began looking for her pet and discovered her in the car several hours later. By then, the dog, named Bear, was already dead.
This incident comes on the heels of another dog's death in the area several days earlier. A Pit Bull died when its owners, who were attending a festival, were told that dogs were not allowed inside. They left the dog in their car for two hours, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., and when they returned, it had already died from the summer heat.
In both cases, animal control is investigating to determine if charges should be filed against the owners.
I think it's great that pet owners love to bring their dogs with them, but under no circumstances should you ever leave your dog in the car. Not in the summer, and really, never.
As if anyone needs to be reminded, it's summer, the weather is heating up, and you should never - absolutely never - leave your dog in a car.
Negligence is unforgivable. In Scotland recently, four dogs died after their owners left them in cars, according to the Scottish SPCA. Temperatures exceeded 26 degrees Celsius inside the cars - that's 79 degrees Fahrenheit. Doesn't sound excessively hot, does it? But it's plenty hot enough to kill a family pet.
"Many people don't realize just how dangerous an act this is and we are getting reports of it happening all over the country," said Mike Flynn, superintendent of the Scottish SPCA.
Unfortunately, we're likely to hear more stories like these in the coming months. Let this be a reminder: Leave your dog at home if you're going to run errands this summer. Even if you leave the windows rolled down a bit, the inside of your car can heat up quickly.
It's just not worth the risk.
Depending on where you live, the end of summer won’t necessarily mean the end of hot, humid days. That’s why a reminder about dogs and cars is worth mentioning now.
You might have seen the story about the San Diego police officer who left his K-9 police dog in a closed car on a June day when temperatures reached 100 degrees. The dog, a 5-year-old Belgian Malinois named Forrest, died of heatstroke while the officer was inside his home.
The San Diego district attorney’s office charged the officer with a misdemeanor under a California law that makes it a crime to leave a dog in a closed car on a hot day. The cop faced a six-month jail sentence.
The message should be clear to all dog owners: Dogs, cars and heat are a toxic mix. It’s never wise to park and leave your dog with the windows rolled up. I admit my own guilt on occasion, but I have always found a spot under a shade tree and left the windows half open so my Golden Retriever doesn’t become over-heated. And my stops have always been brief – never more than a few minutes to mail a letter or stop at an ATM.
But I’m even second-guessing myself now, especially after reading about the police dog. Newspaper reports say the officer was distraught over his loss; he recently pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of animal endangerment and is no longer allowed to work with canine units. He also must pay half the cost of replacing the dog, which was valued at $8,000, and has promised to help raise money to reimburse the police department for the purchase of heat alarms to be used in canine patrol cars.
But the dog is gone forever, and that’s a sad ending to the story.
