Can You Rescue a Dog from a Hot Car?
If summer teaches us anything, it’s that people never learn: hundreds of dogs continue to die in hot cars each year. We all know the dangers, but minimizing those hazards is common, especially when people plan to rush into a store for five-minutes or so before running into someone they know or otherwise losing track of time.
Of course, it’s also common to underestimate exactly how hot a car becomes (while overestimating the power of a barely cracked window). Even on somewhat balmy days (seventy degrees or so), the interior of a car can approach triple digits. So, what should you do when you see Fido in distress?
According to the Animal Legal Defense Fund, a legal advocacy organization
that backs our furry friends, you should take the following actions:
Call the police
The majority of US states allow a police office (or other public safety officer) to break a car window in order to save the life of an animal. Some also have tools where they won’t need to break the window in order to free the pet inside.
Make sure you know your own state laws
Depending on where you live (or the state you’re visiting), it may be within your legal rights to grab a rock and rescue an overheating dog. Eight states (California, Colorado, Indiana, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Florida, Ohio, and Tennessee) have “Good Samaritan” laws that protect the Good Samaritan in the event they break a window to save a pet (Arizona and Alabama are considering the passage of similar laws).
While only 20% of the US have enacted the above, far more (29, in fact) have laws making it illegal to leave a pet in an unattended hot car in the first place. Unfortunately, two states (New Jersey and West Virginia) don’t allow anyone to break a window to rescue a pet, not even law enforcement.
You might consider these options too:
Look for the owner
If the store is small (such as a gas station), consider looking for the owner to tell them that their pet is in trouble. Any decent person will take swift action when they realize the gravity of the situation.
Make sure your reaction is warranted
Seeing a dog inside an unattended car on a hot day is a startling sight, but it might not always be as shocking as first believed. As cars have gotten more technology-focused (and we’ve realized the dangers of heatstroke), many people have begun to leave their vehicles running when their pets are left alone. Thus, if a car is on with a dog inside, it’s likely that it’s on purely to provide the pet with air conditioning and no action is required.
As always, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Taking action won’t hurt a dog (even if it hurts a window). Inaction, on the other hand, might just kill one.
JJ Keeler lives in Colorado with a house full of pets. She owns three dogs, two cats, and a hamster she bought as a bribe to get her daughter to ride the school bus. She has a BA in English Literature from the University of Colorado and has worked as a professional writer for fifteen years. Her clothes are perpetually covered in pet hair.
