Animal Rescue with Marion Garnett
Dedicated animal expert MARION GARNETT, founder of the Ealing Animal Welfare Bazaar, continues her column
WHAT do we do to make strangers feel welcome in our home?
We could take a cue from some of the animals in a rehoming Centre. The first thing Betty Boo did when I arrived at her pen at the Adoption Centre was to get up to meet me. After that, she gave me her undivided attention and could not have been friendlier. She also had the consideration to check out my handbag to see if there was any food that needed storing in a safer place.
When beautiful Betty Boo arrived into the care of the RSPCA in April she was a stray with a wound on her back but this has healed well and she is now waiting to be offered a home, where she will make a wonderful pet. If you would like Betty Boo to welcome your guests, you can meet her at the RSPCA Cat Adoption Centre, Burket Close, Southall. We sat together for a while, in her pen, while I wrote this. It was a sunny day and when I returned to the car it was baking hot.
And that is just what happens to a car when it’s warm. It becomes like an oven. This can happen very quickly even when the weather doesn’t feel that hot. Last year one man misjudged the weather when he left three dogs in a car in Peterborough. When he returned two dogs had died and the third was dying. It was a lesson learnt the hard way, to never leave your dog alone in a car on a warm day even if the windows are left open or the car is in the shade.
If we see a dog in a car on a warm day, the RSPCA advise that we should call 999.
If the dog is outside a shop we could ask the shop to make an announcement for the car owner. If the situation becomes critical and the police are too far away, many people’s instinct will be to break into the car to free the dog.
If we decide to do this, we need to be aware that, without proper justification, this could be classed as criminal damage and we may need to defend our actions in court. We must make sure we tell the police what we intend to do, why and take images of the dog and the names and numbers of witnesses.