Dog freed from hot car after woman calls police

BOYNTON BEACH – Ilisa Diamond has fostered and adopted more than 20 rescue dogs over the years but never thought she would end up helping to rescue a pit bull from a hot car during a vacation in Boynton Beach.

The Freehold, N.J., nurse saw the dog inside a car parked outside a Bank of America in the 500 block of East Woolbright Road about10:30 a.m. Monday.

She called Boynton Beach police.

When officers arrived they carefully broke out a small window on the rear passenger side door in order to free the dog.

“I’m very involved in animal rescue up here in New Jersey so it just came very natural to do the right thing,” Diamond said, adding this has neverhappened to her before. “Nope, never ever, and I hope I never come across it again.”

The dog’s owner told police she only went into a store for a few minutes, but Diamond said 15 minutes had passed while she was there.

“I don’t know how long the dog was in the car before I got there,” she said.

It doesn’t take long for a dog to get in heat distress, saidToccoa Graves, a veterinarian in Vero Beach. Graves said a dog’s body is covered with fur, not pores, so they don’t sweat as efficiently as people.

“They don’t have the ability to cool themselves down like we do, so when the temperature rises they really get hot fast,” she said. It was warm and sunny in Boynton Beach Monday morning. Officers estimate it was at least 100 degrees inside the locked car.

Diamond, 49, said she hopes getting involved will remind people to think about their actions.

“We just want to get the word out there that this is scary and it could be tragic,” she said. “It’s like leaving a child in a hot car.”

The dogwas givenwater and was returned to its owner who received a citation, police said.

“I don’t think she meant any harm,” said Diamond. “I think she just made a really bad decision.”

In 2016, the governor signed a lawmaking it legal to break into locked vehicles to rescue people or animals.