It’s almost summer, and as temperatures soar it’s extremely important to be aware of your dog’s health in the heat.
Dogs are very susceptible to heat stroke, and an all-too-common killer is hot car deaths, when pets are left unattended in a vehicle on a hot day.
While this should be common knowledge by now, every summer brings countless reminders of how deadly this can be. PETA has tracked 57 preventable deaths since 2019.
Sadly two dogs became the latest victims after being left alone in a car for 90 minutes on a hot day, in a story with an ironic twist.
A Missouri woman attended a 90 minute lecture at the Tom Rose dog training school earlier this month on how to become a professional dog trainer, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
But the woman brought her two dogs with her… and left them in the car in the 90-degree-heat.
She knew enough to leave the air conditioner on high… but it wasn’t enough to spare the dogs from a tragic death.
At some point during the lecture, the car ran out of gas and the air conditioner shut off, leaving the dogs helpless in the hot car.
By the time she returned, it was already too late.
The woman was devastated when she realized what had happened.
“It was just a terrible accident,” school owner Tom Rose told the Post-Dispatch. “The owner of the dogs was incoherent. It’s a horrible thing, and she was so upset.”
While hot car deaths can be criminally punished as animal abuse, in this case no charges were warranted and the police weren’t called.
“There was no reason to notify the police. There was no negligence involved. Just a very unfortunate accident.”
The story is a reminder how even people who love and care for dogs, and take every precaution, can still end up with a hot car tragedy if every precaution isn’t taken. It is reminiscent of a story from last year where a K-9 police dog died in a hot car from a possible malfunction with the cooling failsafe.
It is never advisable to leave your pets unattended in a vehicle for more than a few minutes, even if you crack the windows or leave the air conditioning on.
As this story shows, it’s much better to be safe than sorry. Our hearts go out to these two poor dogs who lost their lives so tragically.
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