Summer heat means danger for pets in cars
Yes, even a few minutes in a vehicle can be deadly, writes Lorraine Sommerfeld.
I wasn’t paying much attention to the older gentleman ahead of me in line at the pet store. The cashier had pleasantly asked where his dog was, because pet stores are the one place everybody seems happy to see a dog.
“Oh, she’s at home, and hopefully not tearing the place apart,” he said gruffly.
The cashier smiled her best dogs-will-be-dogs smile and continued the transaction.
It was the next thing he uttered that made me shift the tower of cat food cases I was holding.
“And now of course, every idiot who wants to is allowed to break my car windows when I leave her in the car,” he continued.
Yeah, that idiot would be me, you old fool.
I watched him head out the doors and wondered why he had a dog at all. Dogs are a wonderful, joyful, pain in the arse. If you have one, you’ve signed up for all that entails, and that means not leaving them behind in cars that can heat up faster than a microwave. Not ever. Not even for 10 minutes.
Provincial animal protection mandates are in place across the country, and headline-making negligence reports are making lawmakers take heed. In December 2014, Nova Scotia passed legislation that included higher fines ($200 to $700) for some abuses, and gave more power to SPCA officers to do things like break car windows instead of waiting for police.
Breaking a window will always be a call made in the moment if you’re a bystander, but it’s good to know some places are recognizing that seconds can matter if an animal — or worse, a child — is in distress.
The law in many places is still blurry; we need it bolstered, like they did in Nova Scotia. B.C. has 24 SPCA workers able to intervene, and the province’s new NDP government continues to push for harsher laws. You can now face a $75,000 fine and two years in jail. In May 2014, a dog walker caused the death of six animals in her care when she left them in her van. She received a six-month sentence.
Last year, California enacted a law that allows private citizens to rescue dogs from a hot or cold car, but the wording is deliberate, and focuses on causing the least amount of trauma to a trapped pet rather than baseball-bat justice. I’ve put myself through the physical terribleness of being locked in a hot car for an hour, and I can’t imagine how a child or pet would get through a similar experience. Leaving aside the words I have for people who leave their children in the car, let’s address the pups.
A car or van is an oven. Steel and glass and dark interiors, they are ovens, not shelters. In 10 minutes the temperature inside your vehicle can rise from 21 C (70 F) to 32 C (90 F).
In another 10 minutes it can get to nearly 38 C (100 F). In 20 minutes that lovely temperature you’re enjoying outside has turned your car into a death trap.
Don’t bother with cracking the window. If you have your oven on and you open the door an inch or two, it does nothing. Same with your car. Parking in the shade? Nope. The heat — and your animal — is trapped regardless.
Dogs don’t perspire like people. They can only pant and sweat through their paws. If the seats are hot, that removes one option from them. Pile on the frantic behaviour that often ensues when left behind by the people they trust, and ramp up the onset of their internal thermostats heating up. Distress develops in minutes, and organ failure and death not long after.
Yes, it can happen fast. Would you ever set your oven for 100 degrees, then put something living in there? I didn’t think so.
Every province has an SPCA number you can call if you see an animal left in a car. You can also call police. You can run into nearby stores and try to have a car owner paged.
Most tips tell you leaving a car running with the air conditioning on is not a solution, but I’d argue that — at least gently.
I have a friend who travels with her dog and it’s much safer to leave her animal locked in a running vehicle while she dashes in for a pee, if that is her only option. It’s a solution that introduces other concerns, but if the emergency brake is on so Fido can’t accidentally drop it into drive, I’d take this approach over the roasting car.
There are many who criticize the internet for creating vigilante lawlessness, and it’s as easy to find a sympathetic story about someone who only left their kid or their dog for 20 seconds before all hell broke loose.
I’m not an unreasonable person, but “I was only gone for a few minutes” has to become equated with “I only had a couple of beers.” Neither can work, neither can become normal, neither can be acceptable.
My dog-owning kids know they can drop their critters off with me if they have to; I’ve offered to stay with a pup outside a store on a leash, and I’m no dog person. The cashier at the pet store told me staff even offer to go out to cars of customers, like the crotchety guy ahead of me, when they knew there might be dogs there.
If your animal is already in distress, a stranger breaking a window will increase that stress in the short term. But before you start calling out the rebels looking for a cause, remind me why I care more about your dog than you do.