Dogs Die in Smart Cars, Too

Jessica Burtch
Mon, 19 May 2014 18:34:04 -0700
Lifestyle

It's not snowing in California, Chicago. In fact, it's hot — unusually hot. Downtown Los Angeles hit a record-breaking 99 degrees last week. San Diego is on fire. Even coastal SoCal, typically much cooler, has been experiencing 90-plus-degree days. And today, May 19, in Indio, it was 94 degrees under an unrelenting desert sun.

Why the weather report?

Because also today in Indio, a sheriff smashed a car window to save two tiny terriers from death by heatstroke.
Updated: Mon May 19, 2014

It's not snowing in California, Chicago. In fact, it's hot — unusually hot. Downtown Los Angeles hit a record-breaking 99 degrees last week. San Diego is on fire. Even coastal SoCal, typically much cooler, has been experiencing 90-plus-degree days. And today, May 19, in Indio, it was 94 degrees under an unrelenting desert sun.

Why the weather report?

Because also today in Indio, a sheriff smashed a car window to save two tiny terriers from death by heatstroke.

It was a Smart car. Don't judge a driver by her vehicle.

The temperature inside the car was 134 degrees, according to Riverside County Animal Services spokesman John Welsh. For the math-challenged, that's a difference of 40 degrees from outside to inside.

"Anyone in their right mind should know that you don't leave an animal in a car on a day like today," said Riverside County Animal Services Commander Rita Gutierrez.

Anyone in their right mind. But what about all of the people who are out of their right minds, or who are legally in their right minds but still make boneheaded moves like this?

Last week, police officers in Coachella Valley arrested 29-year-old Charu Cata Khanna on charges of felony cruelty to an animal resulting in death. She left her dog locked in a car with the windows closed for hours in a Del Taco parking lot. It was 100 degrees outside.

In California, it is a felony to leave a dog in an unattended vehicle under conditions that could endanger the animal's health, including heat, cold and lack of ventilation and adequate food and water.

In California, it is legal for police, emergency responders, animal control officers and peace officers to do anything within reason to remove an animal from a vehicle under such conditions. Thirteen other states have similar laws, and beyond those, many states have broadened their definitions of and stiffened their penalties for animal cruelty.

Most people — certainly people in their right minds — don't want their dogs to suffer horrible deaths. Most of us wish our dogs could live as long as we do. This column, this information, it's obviously not targeted at the sociopaths who do this kind of thing on purpose. Those people are beyond the reach of words on a page.

It's for all the people who don't think, who don't believe it could happen to them, who say "I'll just be a minute," when really they'll be five or 10 — and that just might be too many minutes. It can happen that fast.

In 10 minutes, a car's internal temperature can climb 15 degrees. In just three minutes, your dog's brain could already be impacted. Dogs sweat only through their paws. Panting is how they otherwise cool themselves, but it's an inefficient system in close quarters with poor ventilation — a.k.a., a car.

Young dogs might not have a fully developed temperature-regulating system. The organs of older dogs might not be operating at their full potential. Brachycephalic dogs (Pugs, Bulldogs, Boston terriers, Lhasa Apsos, Pekingese, Shih Tzus, Boxers, Bull Mastiffs) are prone to heatstroke due to small nasal passages that make circulating air for cooling challenging.

But no matter the dog, it's always a gamble, a round of Russian roulette with a life other than our own. It isn't worth the risk, and it isn't fair to take it. Our dogs are safer and happier at home than in a parking lot. And if you see a dog locked in a car and in distress, call 911 and take it from there. It's the right thing to do.