Renowned American author Stephen King once wrote, “Sooner or later, everything old is new again.” That certainly proved true again today in the Greenfield Big Y parking lot when a senior dog was left unattended in a car.
When I returned from the store to my truck, a concerned woman was already walking around the car where the white-faced dog was trapped inside. It was 3:30 p.m. and the temperature was 75 degrees. The car windows were cracked open about three inches. We determined that the dog did not appear to be in distress (for example, it was not panting hard or showing signs of anxiety). Nonetheless, I took a photo of the car’s license plate and turned to head into the supermarket to try to locate the owner of the vehicle.
At that moment, as a young woman approached the car, the concerned bystander kindly asked her if she was the car owner. The women tossed her hair back and snorted, “Yes! It’s only been about 20 minutes!” She then proceeded to glare at us while loading her groceries in the car, then slam the doors after.
Although there was no altercation, her indignation at our concern for the dog’s safety sparked a flood of memories for me. Eighteen years ago, I found a dog panting and highly distressed dog left in a car on a 92-degree day. The incident occurred in 2007, in Brattleboro, Vermont.
When the town animal control officer arrived on the scene, the internal temperature of the car was measured at 106 degrees. Yet, despite my pleas to save the dog, and the arrival of another police officer who offered to open the car, the animal control officer refused to open the car and save the dog. She erroneously claimed there was no legal authority to open the vehicle. After 25 minutes, when the car owner arrived, the car was opened, but I don’t know if the tragically weakened dog survived.
Witnessing such a macabre nightmare, including the blatant ignorance of a law enforcement official who could have spared the dog horrifying suffering, and possibly death, led to a seven-year fact finding mission. Here is only a fraction of what I learned.
Dogs are especially vulnerable to heat-related suffering, injury, and death as a result of their normal body temperature, which ranges from 101 to 102.5 degrees, and is much higher than human body temperatures. Therefore, they can withstand only a small rise in body temperature for a short time before suffering irreversible damage to their nervous system, heart, liver, and/or brain. Additionally, dogs cool down only by panting and through the pads of their feet, both of which are rendered less effective by the heated air and seats in an enclosed vehicle, even with the windows cracked.
A single Stanford University study is only one, among countless others, that identified that the interior of a vehicle can rise an average of 40 degrees within an hour, regardless of outdoor temperature. Windows left cracked open make little difference. Furthermore, 80 percent of that temperature rise occurs within the first 30 minutes, with the highest spike in temperature within only 20 minutes. In a similar study conducted by San Francisco State University, when it was 80 degrees outside, the temperature inside a car rose to 99 degrees in 10 minutes and 109 degrees in 20 minutes.
In other words, on a sunny 70-degree day that seems perfectly beautiful to humans, the
temperature inside a vehicle can rise to 99 degrees in only 20 minutes, and to 104 degrees within a half hour. Dogs can suffer irreversible harm, and die, much faster than humans as a result of sudden rises in heat. Sadly, this was precisely the case in 2017 when police in Southern California reported the death of a dog left in a car on a 70-degree-day.
Despite disturbing news reports, year-after-year, of heat-induced deaths of both children and dogs left unattended in vehicles, well-meaning and rightfully concerned bystanders who have no way of knowing how long the child or dog has been left in the car, or when the car owner might return, are met more often than not with self-righteous indignation, anger, rage, and even torrents of expletives.
I encourage people to never walk away from a dog left unattended in a vehicle. Not only is
leaving your dog in a car unsafe and potentially life-threatening, but it is also illegal in 31 states, including Massachusetts. If you see a dog unattended in a vehicle, try to locate the car owner and/or call 911. If you believe the animal is in immediate distress and may suffer harm or death, you are protected should you save the animal’s life. Know the law as written in M.G.L.A. 140 § 174F. And always gently remind the car owner, it’s not about them. It’s about the dog.
Barry Adams is a retired registered nurse who splits his time living in Heath, Boston and Tucson, Arizona.
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