It is with a great lack of patience on my part that I get irritated at people who leave their dogs in cars on hot days like today. I used to wait a little bit to make sure the owner would show up soon. Now I hunt down the owners and have them paged. If I can’t find them, the next step is to call law enforcement or animal control. I haven’t yet needed to but I’ve been sorely tempted.
I just came back from downtown Sebastopol, when there, parked in front of a business in the sun, was a vehicle with two dogs in the back. I went into the business and told the front desk person that two dogs were in the car and could they page to have the owner get them out?
I had no sooner described the vehicle when the owner said, “Those are my dogs and they are fine. I left the windows cracked.”
I mentioned the California law that forbids leaving pets in cars when the weather will impact their health when she said back, “I take very good care of my dogs.”
The retort is “obviously not,” but my mama raised a gentlewoman and again, I mentioned the law, but besides the law, it’s very risky to leave the animals under such conditions. She admitted not knowing about the law. Not knowing about the law was an excuse for leaving the dogs??
So as I write this, the indoor car temperature index the Sonoma Humane Society reads 121F. 121 degrees!! One suspects some cracked windows are not going to make a whole heck of a lot of difference.
Folks….we are supposed to have a few days of warm weather this week. After a summer of coolness, many of us may have gotten into the habit of carting the dogs around in the car, while running errands. For a few days, don’t.
Leave them home, so they are alive when you come back from your errands.
