What To Do If You See A Pet In A Car?

What should you do when you see a pet in a car?

I get asked this one often, especially in summer.

Here's my answer.

It is almost impossible to guesstimate the temperature in the car so you should always assume that it is too hot. Even if you think it is cool outside cars are built to hold heat and with all of the window surface area the inside of the car can get deadly hot very quickly. Pets also have a difficult time dissipating heat. When they get hot it is much harder for them to cool off then we do. Some dogs are just built to live in cold climates. Dogs with heavy thick dark coats, thick stocky builds, or a shortened nose can be even more susceptible to temperature increases. My beagle, short, stocky, built like a tank will pant and overheat outside in 80 degree weather, while his brother, thin pit bull mix is perfectly content in the sun. (See Jekyll's Heat Intolerance.)

The literature says that at 68 degrees Fahrenheit, (not a warm temperature for most of us), after 10 minutes your pet can be on its way to hyperthermia. Think about hyperthermia like a snowball effect. After it starts it can be very, very difficult regardless of how aggressive the treatment, to reverse the cascade of events going on inside the body. There is a point where you cannot reverse or turn around the damage being done. A dog panting may look as if they are calm and comfortable and warm, but inside their body is dying. I have seen pets walk in the clinic looking hot and watch them die in front of us no matter what we did to try to cool them down.

Be Afraid For A Panting Dog.

The best thing to do when you see a pet in a car regardless of outside temperature, or where you are, is to call the police and wait for them to arrive.

Now I understand that laws vary by location. If the dispatcher tells you that they will not respond ask them who you need to contact? Call someone until they agree to come and respond. And always wait for them to do so.

In many places there is a fine for the pet owner if they leave a pet in a car unattended.

For all of you who find yourself stuck trying to decide what to do when it appears no one will help call rescue groups, ask for animal welfare advocates in your community and work with any person in law enforcement who will help you save that pet.

As for me, personally, well I won't give you advice and put you in a position of getting into trouble with the law, but I will not walk away. I take photos of the car, the pet, the license plate and the owner when, or if, they arrive. I will also do anything to save a pet. I would rather be wrong than unkind. I am just wired this way. I can make an enemy, pay a fine, pay for someone'e broken window and plea for their insurance company to understand my actions, rather then to watch, worry, wait, and live with my guilty conscious. Also, I am comfortable with and around pets. I always keep a leash in my car, and I would know how to safely remove an unknown pet. These are things to think about. What if the pet isn't friendly? What if they run? They could be injured. Someone else could be injured? What if he does have heat exhaustion or stroke? What....well, think before you act. You will likely be held accountable.

Did you know that your phone can be your eyewitness? Your alibi? and your defense? There is an app for that! There is an app that can measure the temperature. Record the temperature, keep your photos, and help mount a defense to protect that pet and yourself. After you witness one pet dying it changes how you react. Is that my excuse for premeditated window smashing? Maybe?

Be safe, be an advocate, and always be kind.

From the MD State Law;

Transportation. Title 21. Vehicle Laws--Rules of the Road. Subtitle 10. Stopping, Standing, and Parking. § 21-1004.1. Domestic animals left in vehicle (a) A person may not leave a cat or dog unattended in a standing or parked motor vehicle in a manner that endangers the health or safety of the cat or dog. (b) Except as provided in subsection (c) of this section, a person may use reasonable force to remove from a motor vehicle a cat or dog left in the vehicle in violation of the provisions of subsection (a) of this section if the person is: (1) A law enforcement officer; (2) A public safety employee of the State or of a local governing body; (3) An animal control officer under the jurisdiction of the State or a local governing body; (4) An officer of a society or association, incorporated under the laws of this State for the prevention of cruelty to animals, authorized to make arrests under the provisions of § 10-609 of the Criminal Law Article; or (5) A volunteer or professional of a fire and rescue service. (c) A person may not use force of any kind to remove from a motor vehicle: (1) A dog used by the State or a local governing body for police work while the dog is on duty; or (2) A cat or dog in the custody of an animal control officer. (d) A person described in subsection (b) of this section may not be held liable for any damages directly resulting from actions taken under the provisions of subsection (b) of this section. CREDIT(S) Acts 1987, c. 611; Acts 1988, c. 296. Amended by Acts 2002, c. 213, § 6, eff. Oct. 1, 2002."


And from the Harford County Law;
Section 64-20 "Animals in Vehicles" of the Harford County Code: A. No person shall leave any animal unattended in a motor vehicle when the temperature outside exceeds eighty degrees Fahrenheit (80° F.), except an Animal Control Warden, contractual agent of animal control or a state or local police K-9 officer who is especially equipped with a vehicle that is used for animal transport. B. Any Animal Control Warden, law enforcement officer or agent of the Humane Society of Harford County, Inc., who determines that an animal has been left in a motor vehicle in violation of this Article shall have the right to take such reasonable steps to free the animal from the vehicle as he deems necessary to protect the animal from serious injury or death."

TheStarPress.com complete article

I'm interested to hear what you would do? Or have done?

You can always find me here, or on Pawbly.com. Pawbly is a pet centered community dedicated to helping people take better care of their pets. Pawbly is free to use and open to everyone who loves animals. You can ask questions, answer questions, or just share your photos, follow topics, or learn something new about pets.

You can also find me at the veterinary clinic, Jarrettsville Vet, or on Twitter @FreePetAdvice.

Have a wonderful and safe summer!

Death By Accident

Yesterday our evening appointments were interrupted by a woman rushing into the clinc carrying in a white collie mix who was flat out. She was hysterical and her three young half-clothed boys followed like ducklings in tow.

When she erupted into the front doors her shrieking turned into a full exam room of screaming. The receptionists were frantically yelling, the waiting clients were awestruck, and then joined the bellowing, and even though I was only half-way through my examination with a client I too joined in on the hysteria. I literally dropped my papers, ditched the exam, and high tailed it (despite the receptionists screams to "RUN!") behind the congo line parade of delirium. It was pandemonium, and all the neighbors knew.

A very young, intact, long white haired Shepherd mix was placed on the surgery table. He was lifeless, but still breathing. He seemed to be entering a comatose state and I knew the minute that I saw his bright red-purple gums and the slightly watered down blood pouring from his rectum that he was a heat stroke victim. As I started to take his temperature the first number that flashed onto the digital read-out was 106. Within 2 seconds it beeped at its max read out of 108 degrees. I told the 3 techs scrambling for equipment that he was a hyperthermia and that he was likely going to die.

Terrible, cold, short, words to hear. But I knew that surviving 108 plus degrees internal body temp was physiologically impossible.

We immediately transferred him to the dental table so we could start hosing him off with water. I reminded the staff to use "cool" vs "cold" water because ice-cold water on an already way over heated animal causes the vasculature on the skin's surface to vaso-constrict and stop blood flow, therefore arresting the cooling process.

I then knew that I had to very quickly go out to talk to the family.

Three boys under age 10 flocked to me like I was some sort of relief aid worker. They were all in summer shorts, no shoes, and no shirts. It appeared that their dogs discovery had occurred mid- afternoon summer play time. Their mom, also in summer pool attire, was crying uncontrollably and kept asking me.

I asked the receptionist to sit in the exam room with the boys while I took mom across the hall to discuss Rudy's condition.

"How did this happen?" she asked.

As much as I didn't have a spare second to try to console her in her grief-ridden confusion I tried to explain hurriedly that Rudy was very hot, and that I needed to know if she wanted me to start emergency treatment measures on him.  although his internal core temperature was above what I could record and that I feared he was too hot to be saved.

She replied "Yes," in a momentary lapse of tears gurgling and incomprehensible babble.

She asked me, "What happened?" and I wanted to pick her up and shake her. It was my honest first response. How could she not know what happened? How did she expect me to know?

I replied back to her, "Ruby has gotten too hot. His internal body temperature does not even register. He is above 108 degrees and I am afraid he is going to die." I had no time for platitudes, and there were 3 techs in the back treatment area and her dying dog who needed me immediately.

She started to mutter something to the effect of "we only left him tied out for two hours..."

It was a 100 plus degrees outside and I was going to say things I would regret and Ruby was going to die if I didn't leave.

I ran to the back and we started to try to reverse the series of life-ending steps that his body had already started.

One tech was still hosing him down. To the touch he was almost completely soaked now.

The other two techs were trying to place peripheral i.v. catheters in his front leg.

I barked out orders as fast as I could. Ruby needed an i.v. catheter in each front leg and fluids as fast as we could deliver them.

My staff is incredibly competent and every technician in the building can place an i.v. catheter within seconds. Multiple attempts at light speed and they still didn't have one catheter in. They stopped their attempts and moved over so I could jump in.

He had no blood pressure, no palpable veins, and hence they had had no success in placing the catheter.

Because he was so hot his blood had already started to condense. They were expecting to see a "flashback" of blood when the catheter entered the vein, but he was too hot for the blood to "flash."  He was a patient with blood vessels like they hadn't seen before and their idea of normal was prohibiting them from believing that their catheters were in the vein. As I advanced the catheter there was only a teeny tiny drop of blood to flash. They were expecting his vein to be the normal tube like liquid-blood filled structure that healthy pets have. But he was no longer a normal healthy pet. I quickly taped the first i.v. in and moved to the other leg.

The other leg was so difficult that I had to do what we call a "cut-down." The vein was so small, so obscure, and so damaged that I had to cut through the skin to dissect the vein out so I could then try to place the i.v. catheter. It is a procedure we only do when everything else has failed and we are up against a wall. I placed the second i.v. and we started to push fluids as fast as we could.

"The fluids won't run," they reported to me as quickly as they started to squeeze the i.v. bags.

The veins were blowing because the "tube" of the vein had been heated up to a point where the tube broke down. Not only were the walls of the tubes breaking down, but the liquid-blood inside of them was no a jello-like consistency. He had essentially evaporated off the liquid and congealed his own blood. Both legs i.v. catheters were blown as quickly as we had started to push the i.v. fluids.

Within minutes of cool water cooling his temperature registered at 106.5. It was better than >108, but he was failing, and all of our attempts to save him were too.

He then started to seize. I tried to give an emergency valium dose to stop the seizure but seconds after the seizure started his heart started to beat irregularly.

At this point I looked at my staff. They were begging me to save him, and gazing at me as if I had some magical powers to stop and reverse time.

I said to them again "I am sorry, I think he is going to die."

I looked at Ruby and I said, "I am sorry."

His heart changed from too slow, during his seizure, to wildly erratically irregularly fast. He was in atrial fibrillation now. I grabbed for more drugs. His eyes opened, his head flew back, the pupils went fixed and dilated, and his mouth gaped open as if to release a harboring demon.

The techs begged me to put him down. One grabbed for the euthanasia solution as I wrapped my hand around the area of his chest where I could feel his dying bewildered heart take its last few beats.

As he took his last breath I pierced his heart with the pink fluid to relieve his struggle. He died before the fluid could assist him.

It had been less than 20 minutes and we had all witnessed what we all collectively agreed was the most excruciatingly horrible death.

I returned to the family to notify them of Ruby's passing. The boys, who had not seemed upset before, now screamed in a charged guttural grief stricken cry. Their mom held them and tried to comfort them. I could tell that she wasn't going to let herself cry while she stayed strong for her children.

The rest of the family arrived a little while later. I spoke to all of the adults together.

They didn't understand that 2 hours was likely an hour and 50 minutes longer than any dog could tolerate in 100 plus degree very high humidity heat. They told me that they never tie him up, but because the kids were out playing, and because Ruby was trying to corral them up, they had tied him to a bush. He had been jumping and barking and when they found him he was collapsed under the bush.

I tried to explain that dogs are about 2 degrees warmer than humans are, they wear a fur coat all year around, and that they have a very limited ability to sweat.

Ruby's death was a terrible tragic accident and my only hope is that his story will save other pets out there somewhere.

Please never leave your pets outside in hot weather. NEVER EVER leave them in a car. And if they start to pant its time to get them wet and cool them off.

Any pet over 103 degrees needs to go to a vet immediately!

My thoughts and prayers are with Rudy's family.



I saw this online recently. It is a petition at change.org.

It’s a sight that makes Dorothy Hearst desperately worried every summer: a car parked at a shopping center, a dog looking anxiously out the window, and no owner in sight.
Dorothy never leaves Emmi, a 3-year-old Labrador whom she adores, in her Subaru -- as a lifelong dog lover, she knows that in the few minutes it takes to run an errand, the temperature in a car can soar to almost 110 degrees. But many people don’t realize that even a 15 minute errand can be fatal for their beloved pets. For Dorothy, it’s heartbreaking. And what’s worse is knowing it can happen to even the most loving owners -- people simply don’t realize the danger. Dorothy knows that educating people would save the lives of countless dogs. That’s why she’s started a petition asking Subaru, which prides itself on its dog-friendly image, to make an ad warning drivers not to leave their dogs in the car during the summer.
As a Subaru driver, Dorothy appreciates all the ways the company has already shown it cares about dogs -- and she loves its popular "Dog Tested, Dog Approved" ads showing dogs test driving its cars with hilarious results. This summer, she thinks Subaru can use these creative ads to send an important message about the dangers of hot cars -- and save the lives of hundreds of dogs.
Subaru says 70% of its customers are pet owners, and Dorothy thinks this makes them the ideal voice for such an important, dog-friendly message. She's convinced that Subaru will jump at the chance to appeal not only to its own customers, but to dog lovers everywhere -- and she knows that this is one of the most powerful ways to make sure this summer, more dogs don’t die needlessly.** ask Subaru to save dogs’ lives by making an ad warning owners not to leave their dogs in the car this summer.
Thanks for being a change-maker, via Change.org see Dorothies petition.

The signing period for this petition has closed. You can notify Subaru yourself via their link at  https://www.subaru.com/shopping-tools/contact-us.html. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a way for automobiles to detect if a pet or person was in the car? It will happen someday.


For more information on the dangers of pets in cars see; http://www.petmd.com/dog/emergency/common-emergencies/e_dg_heat_stroke