Walking through the parking lot outside a mall in Florida, someone noticed a disturbing sight: a 10-week-old puppy locked inside a hot car, panting and SCREAMING from being broiled alive. Whoever had left the puppy inside the car had kept all four windows completely shut, and by the time animal control arrived on the scene, the inside temperature had already skyrocketed to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. As the animal control officer recounts: “The puppy was laying on the floor behind the passenger seat, screaming in pain and barely moving.”
The owners of this dog weren’t acting maliciously; like many pet owners, they just hoped everything would be all right. Unfortunately, this type of incident is very common, and it often leads to death. It only takes 10 minutes for temperatures inside parked cars to climb 20 degrees, and after that, the heat just keeps rising. Even on a chilly day, a car’s inside temperature can easily hit more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Cracking the windows doesn’t even help. Clearly something needs to be done to educate dog owners and prevent this kind of animal torment from ever happening again. Tell Florida state officials to make sure all animal shelters, pet stores, and veterinarians certify that they have educated each dog owner they work with about keeping dogs safe from hot cars.