Stop Leaving Dogs In Cars! Period!

Stop Leaving Dogs In Cars! Period!

by Lynn Stacy-Smith

I normally do not blog when I am angry. Today is an exception because I just watched this video: Police Officers Save 1 Month Old Puppy Trapped In Hot Car.

I am astounded that this is still happening, I am pissed off as I wonder what the hell is wrong with people? I normally write with the utmost of diplomacy, perhaps from my corporate background, but also because that’s just who I am. I am diplomatic, I try to see all of the shades of gray in an issue instead of just the black and white. But I cannot help but wonder today, are the people who leave their dogs (and their children) in hot cars just plain old stupid or do they simply not care? Idiots, or monsters? Although it doesn’t matter because the result is the same: death of an innocent creature.

I am not even going to comment on the fact that they believe the puppy in the video was just one month old, or ponder why someone had such a young  puppy out alone instead of at home with its mother and littermates. Had he already left his litter to be placed with such a negligent owner? Of course if that is the case it is no wonder that the puppy ended up in the hands of such negligent, irresponsible and selfish humans, because everyone in the dog world with half a brain knows that puppies should be with their mothers until they are eight weeks old. Not only should that puppy have not been in that car, it was far too early for him to go to his forever home unless something had happened to his mother.

With the worst heat of the summer upon us in most parts of the country, I see heat related warnings for dogs and children on a daily basis. In fact rather than reinvent the wheel and create my own graphic for this blog I decided to share an existing one. This is the result of my Google Search and it went on for pages and pages!

 

What gets me about this rampant problem is that there is no lack of information on this topic, as evidenced by my Google search, so why are some dog owners so utterly clueless? Why are they still inflicting this torture on their dogs? Is it not just common sense? Do people not believe the dire warnings? Do they think that it will actually take just two minutes to run in for a gallon of milk or to pick up a prescription? Do they not know that even if it DID take two minutes, that the temperature is already soaring in those minutes and seconds? I don’t know about you, but I cannot ever recall a trip into a store for even the most basic item taking less than ten minutes in recent years.

Just the other day my husband and I were going to dinner and I got into the car thinking that he was right behind me. Instead he had stopped to get something he forgot inside the house and so I waited about 45 seconds in the sweltering car. Even with my passenger door open the heat was so intense that in that short a period of time I felt woozy. FORTY FIVE SECONDS! And I’m a grown adult who could have just got out; I actually sat there and waited just to experience the heat as a bit of research, and that was before I thought about writing this blog. My heart breaks for the dogs who have no way to escape.

Unless you are literally fleeing your home and running for your life and stopping for life sustaining supplies, there is absolutely no reason to leave a dog in a parked car where he or she will perish in a slow and miserable way. And quite frankly, if I was bugging out or being evacuated and fleeing with my dogs, I STILL  would not leave them in a hot car, I’d go through the closest drive through of a restaurant that served bottled water and let them drink from a cup and figure out food after it was cooler outside!

In my (experienced and unwavering) opinion, the only place a dog really needs to go when the temperature soars is to the veterinarian. Other destinations like to obedience school, the groomer, doggie daycare, a walk along a tree covered dirt path, to your local dog friendly beach or to your local holistic pet store can be done successfully as long as the dog never is left in the car alone. Straight to the destination and then back home. Period.

Want to make a Starbucks stop? Hit the drive-thru.

Need milk? Take the dog home and go back out.

Need to figure out what to feed the family for dinner? Take the dog home and go back out.

Need cash? ATM or drive up.

Dry cleaning on the way? Hmmm…the dog’s life versus some clean clothes? Take the dog home and go back out.

The answer to all of these is to take the dog home and go back out. If you have to even think about whether or not it is too hot for your dog to stay in the car, it probably is. 

This is an area in which Woof really applies because Woof means honoring the fact that your dog is a dog and that he or she does not need to be treated like a child even though you love him or her with the same love that you have for a child. Yes, it is fun for your dog to go on car rides with you if you are not stopping anywhere and you have icy cold air conditioning blasting through your vents. But unlike children who might want to tag along to sweet talk you into a treat, your dog does not need to run to Walmart because you ran out of coffee and then sit and wait in an oven on wheels for you to return. Your dog can stay home and do dog things and when you get your coffee back home you will have a live dog to pet while your drink your coffee, instead of a dead one from leaving it in the car and killing it.

When Jackson and Tinkerbell go places with me when it is warm outside, I actually use my remote car starter and start the car before we get inside so that the air conditioner will start to work before we enter the vehicle. Before I had a remote starter I would start the car, turn on the AC, let my dog take a quick potty break before getting into the car, and then enter once some of the oven-like heat had subsided. And back in the day when I drove really awful old cars and my AC didn’t work, I would roll down the windows and let some air flow through the car before my late Babe and I entered.

Of course if you are following me you are probably already living a life dedicated to your dog, a life of Love, Laugh, and Woof, so you know these things and I am preaching to the proverbial choir. I don’t know exactly what we do from here to help dogs.  Some parts of the country have passed laws against leaving dogs in too hot or too cold conditions like here in Illinois. Others have passed laws allowing citizens to take matters into heir own hands and break the windows of cars with dogs and children trapped inside to save more lives.

Do we keep bombarding people with memes on social media? Start a network of volunteers around the country to pass out flyers in parking lots? We have a National Pet Travel Safety Day as well as Heat Safety Awareness Day; it seems redundant to have a specific day for Hot Car Awareness, but maybe that is the next step for both dogs and children because the tragedies are still occurring all across the country.

For now, join me in continuing to educate the public, share one of the many, many pieces of information that you can find on a Google Search, and keep on calling the police when you see dogs trapped inside ovens on wheels whenever the weather is above 70 degrees.