Community Corner
Community Update
“The
public would immediately question the logic, and credibility, of any child protection organization that
recommended searching for the parents
of a child locked in a hot car, or notifying store managers, before making a 911 call. And any individual who followed such peculiar and misguided advice, rather
than immediately intervening on
behalf of the child, may also very likely be charged with endangering the health, safety, and
welfare of the child.”
What do dogs, windows,
and your car have in common? They all
are legally recognized as the private “property” of their owners. The tragic irony is our social concern over the
possibility of a car door being opened by a stranger or a broken car window is,
far too often, given priority over a beating heart and conscious mind that
render a dog capable of bonding with humans, feeling happiness, or yelping in
pain and howling in fear.
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For example, the
science of biology long ago classified canine anatomy. Additionally, veterinary science has since identified
many very specialized functions of dog physiology (let’s say, for instance, their
acute senses of smell and hearing). Similar research has also identified
clearly why dogs cannot physically withstand the dramatic heat rise that occurs
inside a car, even when it is parked in the shade or left with the windows
open.
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Furthermore, many scientific
studies show precisely how, and why, heat rises so quickly in parked cars, even
on a very mild day. Therefore, the American Veterinary Medical Association
(AVMA) warns that even when outdoor spring temperatures are a beautifully
perfect 60 or 70 degrees Fahrenheit, a car can heat up enough to prove fatal to
a dog left inside (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ku1CLJv-HzM ). Consequently, because of the physical
limitations for a dog to cool himself down, we are often warned that “minutes
matter” if we are to prevent irreversible heat induced organ failure and/or
death for dogs left unattended in a parked car.
However, what we
don’t (and can’t) know may be even more decisive in tragic outcomes for dogs. People
who unexpectedly find dogs left in parked cars often don’t know how long the
dog has already been in the car, how hot the car actually is inside, or when
the car owner might return.
Should we walk away and hope for the best? We also can’t reliably know the degree
of physical distress the dog may already be suffering, or exactly at what point
the situation will turn against the dog and result in organ damage and/or
death. Some breeds are even more
vulnerable to heat than other breeds. Does the general public know this
information? Do all police officers? And, not all dogs die at the scene; some
require intensive emergency hospital care after rescue from a hot car and may
die weeks later, or need to be euthanized, as a result of organ failure due to exposure
to high temperatures. These deaths are often
unaccounted for, just as most incidents of dogs being left in hot cars are
undocumented.
So it is shocking
that most major animal protection organizations continue to recommend,
year-after-year, that should you find a dog locked in a car on a “hot day” (does
that include the 60 and 70 degree days the AVMA identifies?), the first course
of action should be to attempt to locate the car owner and/or notify retailers
of the situation, so they can begin searching, too. This is a daunting scenario, particularly if
the car is parked on a city street or located in the vast open parking lot of a
large retailer (for example; malls, grocery stores, and big-box stores, where
most calls seem to come from). It also assures
that the critical “minutes” that “matter” most to a trapped dog will be lost,
as it is not unrealistic to assume that such a search for the car owner will
take at least 20 minutes; long enough to roast a dog alive on a lovely
day.
Then there is the all-too-common,
almost predictable, encounter with the hostile dog/car owner, such as the one
recorded at the Natick, Massachusetts Mall last summer (http://framingham.patch.com/groups/the-voiceless-had-a-voice-over-the-week-end/p/little-dog-gets-a-voice-this-past-weekend : note the video
links at the end of the column that show the little dog being dangled from the
window of a moving car) and the recent
one filmed by the woman who attempted to intervene on behalf of a dog in
Kentucky (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDZGtNlOA5c). Only last week a dear colleague of mine was
viciously verbally assaulted in Vermont and called “an old hag” and a “Commie
bitch” after she tried to talk to a truck owner who left two small distressed dogs in his pick-up truck
on an 80 degree day. Rather than rely on what Vermont law specifically says
about leaving a dog in hot car, the police officer who responded to the scene sided
with the dog/truck owner and defended his brutal slander, reminding my astonished
and publically humiliated friend that; "it's a free country with freedom
of speech."
All of this seems hard to comprehend. The public would immediately question the
logic, and credibility, of any child protection organization that recommended
searching for the parents of a child locked in a hot car, or notifying store
managers, before making a 911 call.
And any individual who
followed such peculiar and misguided advice, rather than immediately
intervening on behalf of the
child, may also very likely be charged with endangering the health, safety, and
welfare of the child. So why do we accept our animal protection organizations
emphasis on respecting cars and the rights of car owners above efforts that may
effectively prevent animal cruelty, and possibly a horrifying death, for
animals confined in cars? Then again,
children are not considered private property, another questionable shortfall “for
the prevention of cruelty to animals”.
If we are to
meaningfully prevent the suffering and deaths of dogs confined in cars in a way
that endangers their health, safety, and survival we can no longer depend on
wishful thinking. Nor can we simply continue
to hope for good outcomes based on individual-by-individual, officer-by-officer,
town-by-town, or state-by-state decisions. After all, dogs die in hot cars in
towns across Canada, Ohio and Minnesota just the same as they do in Florida and
Arizona. None-the-less, harm or death may
result much more quickly for dogs locked in cars in some states, which is
another factor not considered in the advice that individuals begin searching
for car owners while a dog sits in a sweltering parked car. Remember, “minutes matter” because a dog
cannot physically compensate for the rapid rise in temperatures that occur in a
parked car.
We need
authoritative statements by the animal expert community (such as, the American
Veterinary Medical Association, the ASPCA, and Humane Society of the United
States) that serve as the basis for responsible and consistent policy making,
and promoting standardized timely interventions by first responders (including
citizens, retail personnel, and police and animal control officers) based on
the expert knowledge that our animal protection organizations have at their
disposal; knowledge that is not currently reflected in their recommendations
when finding dogs left in hot cars.