Is there a difference between leaving a dog in a car in the shade with the window down and leaving a dog in an unairconditioned house? To my knowledge the inside of a car isn't any different unless you let it get sunlight and turn it into an oven.
I needed to take my dogs with me to visit my father in the hospital (cancer) so that they could go to the bathroom regularly instead of holding it forever in the house and having to suffer that way. I left them in a very breezy parking garage (no oven effect in the garage. felt like being in the shade.) with the window a few inches down and with about as much water as they normally drink during a full non-hot day, which I figured would suffice for a few hours). The temperature outside maxed out at 87, and it was mostly cloudy to completely cloudy and raining during the hours they were in there.
Then I get paged in the hospital that the police are breaking into my vehicle and that my dogs are "suffering". I very civilly asked what was wrong. Were my dogs overheated? sick? dehydrated? The only response was the officer asking, "Don't you watch TV?" and "Your attitude is going to get you in handcuffs so KNOCK IT OFF!" and that "I'm experienced in animal work and just know these things."
I never raised my voice, cursed, made insults or anything, but apparently that's attitude (which apparently is illegal?), while he raises his voice and threatens to take away my liberty and put me in a cage.
Like I said. I've never had air conditioning in the 4 yrs I've had my dogs and we make it through every summer just fine. Should it be illegal to own dogs if you don't have air conditioning? How does a dog get overheated in the shade on a cloudy 87 degree day with the window cracked? It seems like the only thing that could heat the car up is their body heat, but then you have to recognize that the maximum temp would then be equal to or less than their body heat. Short haired dogs btw.
9/19/2013 1:55 AM (edited)