LR alters pet-in-car proposal

Revised wording focuses on heat

Little Rock officials have revised a proposed amendment to the city’s animal-cruelty code that would allow officers to break into unattended vehicles to rescue animals in heat distress.

City staff members presented a first draft of the amendment to the Board of Directors in September, but city directors asked for some changes.

That first ordinance set hot and cold weather conditions during which it would be illegal to keep an animal confined in a vehicle or a truck bed. City Director Lance Hines, who has a hunting dog, worried that hunters who transport their dogs in the backs of trucks during cold hunting months would be affected by the ordinance.

The new proposal, which will go before the board for a vote Tuesday, excludes cold weather restrictions and instead bars vehicle owners from keeping an animal in a vehicle when the interior temperature is more than 90 degrees. The new proposal also eliminates the language about animals confined in truck beds.

City Director B.J. Wyrick also wanted to ensure that drivers who haul livestock through the city aren’t affected. To avoid that, the new proposal exempts livestock.

“We’ve focused on the heat of summer for domesticated animals such as cats and dogs. That’s basically what we are looking at,” Animal Services Manager Tracy Roark said.

The city’s animal-cruelty ordinance already prohibits exposing an animal to extreme temperatures. But it does not expressly give an

animal control officer, law enforcement officer or other emergency personnel the authority to save an animal.

City Attorney Tom Carpenter said that puts officers in a position to be liable for damage to a vehicle if they have to break in to save an animal. The amendment would do away with that concern.

It would allow such personnel to enter a vehicle “by any means reasonable under the circumstances” if they believe the health and safety of the animal to be in jeopardy. The rescued animal will be impounded, and officers must make an effort to contact the owner.

One or more of the following symptoms would be considered evidence of distress:

fast heavy panting, weakness, respiratory difficulties, disorientation or convulsions.

According to the ordinance, the American Veterinary Medical Association said a vehicle’s interior temperature can reach 104 degrees within 10 minutes when the outside temperature is 85 degrees. The inside temperature can reach 140 degrees within an hour when the outside temperature is 70 to 90 degrees, the association said.

Confining an animal in an unattended vehicle will be illegal if the inside temperature is more than 90 degrees — regardless if windows are open.

Animal control officers have devices that can determine the temperature inside a vehicle.

City Director Capi Peck requested the new amendment be drafted after hearing concerns from some police officers.