Dogs Die in Hot Cars!

Every year in Australia we hear of dogs being left in hot cars and them perishing because of it. It’s just appalling that people do not learn. It doesn’t have to be a hot day for a car to warm up to the point where an animal or person can die.

Today’s date marks the anniversary of one such dog who died at my former place of employment. The owners would bring the family dog in who was about 16 years old at the time. They arrived at approximately 9am, the dog was discovered at least three hours later – cooked from the inside out!

That’s not a nice way to put it is it? But it needs to be said because that’s what an animal goes through during such a agonising & horrific death.

An animal left inside a closed car on a hot summer’s day can die in less than 6 minutes.

The owners claim “it was an accident” – they ‘forgot’ he was still in the car.

This is a dog who would ALWAYS go to work with them, how could they ‘forget’ he was with them?

How did they respond to this “accident”? The ‘appeared’ upset, but were soon laughing and smiling, though they had their ’sad’ moments, after having a dog so long it seemed that they didn’t react the way most people would which I always thought was strange. Was it grief? I don’t know, it looked to me more of a guilty conscience!

The RSPCA in Queensland were told who suggested the Police be informed and they were – we have strict cruelty to animals laws and penalties here – but because the dog was already deceased by this point there was little the RSPCA or Police could do. That is the biggest tragedy.

When this happened that day, it was made out that this was a one off occurrence, just a tragic turn of events but I later found out that they were in the habit of “forgetting” him. Since there were always people coming and going, out for a cigarette or whatever, they would notice him quite early and let him out.

This particular day, the car was parked in a different place where nobody goes, so nobody could save him.

It sickens me that this happened, it sickens me even more to know what an animal’s body goes through during such a death.

An accident? No!

This was total NEGLECT!

I’ll also add a week or so later, it was raining and they had their windows down on the car, I said to the male owner of the car “you’ll get rain in the car” and he chuckled as he said “I know but we can’t get the smell of the dog out”. WTF? ‘the dog’….suddenly he’s just ‘the dog’!! I was mortified to hear him refer to a “beloved family pet/member” being referred to like that – and to chuckle when saying it. Does that sound to you like a caring pet owner?

We’re experiencing hotter than normal weather before summer all around Australia, so this is a timely reminder to people to do the right thing and look after their pets in the heat!

On the RSPCA website it states some things to remember:

• Vehicles in the sun get hot at any time of the year.
• A vehicle can get hot even with the windows down in a cool, shaded position – the clouds and sun can move quickly.
• Leaving car windows down on an unattended vehicle is illegal and will not prevent a car from reaching extreme temperatures.
• Vehicles are made of metal and glass – both heat up quickly and retain heat. Generally speaking, vehicles with larger glass surface areas (e.g. hatchbacks) heat up faster and to higher temperatures than similar-sized sedans.
• Tray-back utilities can get extremely hot. Dogs travelling on the back of utes must be secured and have access to shade and water – preferably under a canopy.
• Due to health regulations, dogs cannot enter shopping centres, unless in special circumstances and with prior agreement from management. (In an emergency, however, the cool air of a shopping centre may help save the life of an animal in distress.)
• Dogs tied up unattended outside a car or building may present a risk to the public and may be at risk themselves (from cruelty, theft and weather conditions). You may also be in breach of local council laws.
• Leaving an animal without appropriate water and shelter is an offence under the Animal Care and Protection Act 2001.

To read more about what happens, you can visit the campaign here – Dogs Die in Hot Cars

Tags: animal cruelty, neglect