

Wednesday, July 18, 2012 - 9:45am







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Richard H

I would mind my own business. Sites like this ignore common sense to incite lawlessness. I have personally, this summer, sat in a car with my 87 year-old mother and her Chihuahua in 99 degree heat with windows rolled down less than that one in the picture (so the dog wouldn't jump out), no engine or AC running, for more than half an hour. Guess what? No one died or even suffered any ill effects. People today are so used to jumping in their air conditioned car they cannot conceive of anything living through sitting in a car for a few minutes without the AC going. So they will believe anyone that tells them an animal could die sitting in a car in 78 degree weather in just a few minutes, all facts and common sense to the contrary. The window in the car in this picture is down at least six inches. Before you encourage peope to vandalize other people's cars, maybe you should get a reality check.

Richard H

My apologies. You did not say explicitly that people should break into other people's cars, therefore you did not incite them to lawlessness. You did set the tone and then allowed every visiter to your site to incite others to break the law. There is a difference, however, and I offer my sincere apologies for my false statement.


Hey, it's great you and your mom and her dog were able to sit in the hot car for so long. Kudos to you. But you had the option to get out of the car anytime you wanted should the temp inside the car get too hot. A pet locked in a car doesn't have that option. Recklessly endangering your pet is as much lawlessness as breaking a window to free a pet in obvious distress. I get your point about inciting people to go nuts, but I think most folks are capable of telling the difference between an animal in distress where breaking a window is reasonable and just doing so because they are mad. And I think picture displayed was simply a picture...I don't think it was meant to be representative of how much a window would be rolled down in a given circumstance.


i want to note that humans produce sweat to cool themselves, dogs don't. so while humans can handle the heat by sweating, dogs cant, they can pant which helps some but they cant sweat to cool themselves so when they get too hot they die. So while you were sweating the dog was probably extremely uncomfortable and could have been close to death.

Joan Lando

You must have a high tolerance to heat, I am a nurse, the elderly many times are always cold, but do not know the dangers of heat, and your dog cannot speak, so one must take responsiblity and care. doing nothing can cost a life.


I would encourage caution in such high temperatures. According to WebMd's Pet Health site, heat exhaustion sets in when the dog's internal temperature reaches 103 degrees. (Reference:
The temperature in the car, in this situation, could have easily surpassed 103 degrees. And while it turned out okay this time, a similar situation in the future may not.

Nancy Wilchenski

I would try to figure out what store the owner was in and have a store employee announce over the speaker that someone has a concern about the dog in vehicle, etc. If that didn't work within a few minutes, I would call the police and animal abuse and tell them the situation. Of course, all these avenues depend on the condition of the animal at the time. Whatever I decided to do, believe me, that animal would not suffer any longer in the vehicle! I would take immediate action, but I don't think I would break a window, it would probably scare the animal to death.


Rhonda Keen

I would call the police and stay there with the dog until the police got there!!


You got to have some common sense if you encounter this situation. As one of the others said, she was in the car as well and no one died. Same happened to my wife when we were in Redding CA with 105 weather. I went into the bank leaving my wife and Terrer Mix Bandit in the car. Some Samaritan started to open the car to get the dog!
On the other hand, pets and children DO suffer sometimes in these situations, up to and including death. I have several times confronted this and remained with the car until the owner returned in case I DID have to intervene. Of course, I was the one lectured about "minding my own business".

Karen Fillinger

I would call the cops then break the window!