[Dailydrool] Dog in car

[Drew McQuade]

I am so thankful that the recent discussion of dogs left in hot cars was on 
the Drool recently.

Yesterday my husband and I were at a local chain hardware store. As we 
neared our car, Drew noticeed a dog left in an SUV, with the windows cracked 
about an inch. It was a clear, hot day--not one in which anyone would want 
to sit in a car with the windows all but rolled up. My usually unflappable 
husband started to get rather upset.

I took down the car's information, went into the store, and barged in on the 
customer service area, demanding that they page the car owner. Didn't get 
any response to the page, so I went to their office, got the police phone 
number (the store refused to make the call), and made it myself.

Long story short, eventually the police came--an animal control unit. Just 
as the canine control fellow was taking the temperature inside the car, the 
"owner" showed up. Clueless is the word to describe him. He claimed he'd 
only just left the dog--I pointed out that it had been at least twenty 
minutes since I'd had him paged. He had no idea what was wrong and 
immediately tried to make excuses. When that failed, he started telling the 
officer that his wife was a former state trooper. By then a regular 
policeman was with us. Funny, no one was impressed by his wife's former job 
or his desire to get off scot-free. After all, the car  was at least 100 
degrees inside--probably more, because the thermometer didn't go very far 
in. Animal control was taking this seriously and started creating a summons. 
More "my wife used to be a trooper" as a response.

This person who was allowed to adopt a dog from a shelter seemed more 
concerned about what the four of us thought of him than of what he'd almost 
done to his dog, He kept telling me how he rescued three dogs, loved his 
dog, and so on. I wasn't impressed. I asked why he didn't answer the page, 
and he claimed his didn't hear it. Drew and I stayed around largely because 
I wanted to be sure his trooper thing didn't work. We only left when the 
police more or less asked us to.

Hopefully, this irresponsible fellow will be getting at least a $98 fine and 
will lose some time from work in a court appearance. He could have gotten up 
to a $1,000 fine and 30 days in jail--the animal control officer told him he 
was letting him off lightly. And of course the charge against him will be 
animal cruelty. But all this guy was interested in doing was getting 
everyone to think he was OK--he never expressed any concern for the dog's 
welfare. He'd taken the dog with him, he claimed, because he didn't want to 
leave him home alone (where he would have been safe, as I pointed out). The 
dog, who came up and greeted me after he was let out of the car, was very 
sweet and seemed to be thanking me for getting me out of that hot box. His 
black back was very hot to the touch, but he was otherwise OK. I'm only 
sorry I couldn't give him a smarter owner.

I know no one on this list would leave a basset in the car, but if it did 
happen, I learned that a dog will die when the car reaches 120 degrees. 
Animal control will take a dog that is stressed to the vet's--a $400 bill in 
this area, which is paid by the dog owner. The owner also gets to pay for 
the broken window that allows the police to get the dog out of the car.

I am so glad animal control got there in time--I really sweated it until 
they did. I'm not sure they got through to this fellow, but perhaps the fine 
and the irritation will. A dog as sweet as that didn't deserve to get such a 
home. I only hope a bit of sense was knocked into the person who controls 
his life.
Pam, with Drew, food slave to the Dashing Bassets, who were at home, in 
comfort, while all this was going on