Once Again with Enthusiasm: No Dogs in Hot Cars

Friday morning, Oct. 4, 2013, was mild. After a bit of rain it grew hot and humid, passing 80° by late morning. A throwback to August.

I stopped at Mrs. Green's Market on High Ridge Rd in Stamford on my way to the vet where I had to pick up a prescription for my dog.

When I pulled in the Mrs. Green's parking lot, a woman standing by her car looked upset. I figured she had family business. I shopped for at least 20 minutes, probably a half an hour, and when I left the store the woman was still in the parking lot looking upset.

I followed her gaze to a black Mercedes and realized the source of her concern.

A dog that looked like a boxer was inside the black Mercedes, which was parked on the hot asphalt parking lot. Temperatures outside were in the mid-80°s.

The dog was intermittently crying loudly.

The window was cracked about 6". It is only my guess how much hotter it was inside the car.

The dog had been in the hot car at least a half an hour when I began a conversation with the concerned woman in the parking lot who identified herself as a vet technician.

An employee of the store came outside, but wasn't sure if she or someone should call the police. She later mentioned she had paged the store for the dog's owner, to no avail. I identified myself as a reporter who has written about animal cruelty cases involving dogs in hot cars. I explained that dogs do not sweat the way people do. They cannot cool their bodies efficiently in hot temperatures. When overheated, dogs can go into shock, leading to irreversible organ failure and death. 

I thought of my recent interview with Wilton Police's ACO Bob Napoleon who said many of his "animal cruelty calls" are for dogs in hot cars. He always responds to the call accompanied by a Wilton police officer. Why? "Because," he said, "These people do love their pets, but don't understand the danger they're putting them in when they leave them in a hot car."

My Stamford Patch colleague DJ McAneny has also written about dogs in hot cars. In McAneny's recent post on the topic he quoted Stamford ACO Stendhal Jean-Louis, who warned that "though temperatures might dip as September gives way to cooler fall weather and owners might feel it's ok to leave a pet inside a vehicle, this should never occur."

I called 911, who relayed the address and car license plate to Stamford Police.

I had waited in the hot parking lot for another fifteen minutes when an angry woman stormed out of Mrs. Green's and approached me and two bystanders asking if it were true that the police had been called.

Yes, we  said in unison. We were standing near her car where we could see the dog.

We calmly explained that we were concerned for her dog. I said I was certain she loved her dog and that he was at risk.

I also identified myself as a reporter who had written about animal cruelty cases involving dogs in hot cars. The other bystander identified herself as a veterinary technician and agreed that the dog was in danger.

The dog owner shouted her observations of us which included that we had no lives, too much free time and were not paying enough attention to our husbands.

She also observed that we must not know anything about dogs, before turning around and, to our surprise, returning to the supermarket.

Several more hot minutes passed before the woman and her passenger emerged from Mrs. Green's.  Instead of driving away, the woman and her passenger, possibly her mother, resumed a barrage of insults.

I was hoping the police would arrive before the woman drove off but they arrived about two minutes after the fact.

Next, an officer in an unmarked car arrived with lights flashing and we explained what happened. He called over his radio to to dispatch to say the dog owner had driven off and suggested we stay to talk to a patrol officer.

Five minutes later a patrol car arrived with a uniformed Stamford Police officer and the remaining bystander and I relayed what had happened. Again, I identified myself as a reporter and that I might want to write about the incident.

The officer said no crime had been committed because he did not know if it was too hot for a dog in the car. He offered to call animal control if we were were willing to wait. He said animal control could decide if the dog owner might be ticketed or warned.

The officer also reminded us that it is smarter in these situations to call police and walk away and that we were lucky we were not assaulted.

Fifteen minutes later, Officer Stendhal Jean-Louis from Animal control arrived and I showed him the attached photo of the dog and the remaining bystander, a vet tech, and I relayed the events again. I also identified myself to Officer Stendhal Jean-Louis as an editor at Patch and said I might write a story about the incident.

Police pursued the case and Patch will share information as it becomes available.