Educate Yourself: Don't leave your dog in a hot car.
- Hannah
- Jul 3, 2015
- 4 min read
So there a lot of things that piss me off (obviously), but there are certain things that I read about that send me into a rage. A rage that starts a roaring forest fire in my soul that consumes anything and everything in my path. Well, recently, I read an article that had a video to go along with it, and it was the most heartbreaking thing I have ever seen. This video was of a dog, that was unfortunately left in a car too long… FOUR HOURS too long. This video, although, shows no gore can still be traumatizing to some… So in turn, I am going to give you a play by play of said video, so those of you who don’t have the heart to watch, don’t have to (but those of you who are curious, the link is here). Mostly just to give you background as to how this post came about…
So as I previously stated, this dog was left in the car for FOUR HOURS by it’s owners. As the video starts, someone, I’m assuming someone of authority, is breaking into the car via the back passenger side window shattering the glass to be able to unlock the car door. A woman climbs into the back of the car to put a blanket over the dog so they can smash open the window on the hatchback as well. As this is happening, the owners come outside to see what is going on. When the hatchback is opened by the male owner, you see this huge, panting lump of dog trying so hard to cool himself off. The dog’s face is pressed up against the side of the truck (this is an open hatchback trunk, like a Jeep or a Nissan Rogue). Everyone who has come to the dog’s rescue are trying desperately to cool the dog down by pouring water all over him. The dog barely moved except for it’s excessive panting, and you barely heard a peep other than a few faint cries. This dog was a 14 month old Boxer puppy whose name was Fidji. I say “was” because Fidji is now dead… After being taken from the car, Fidji was taken straight to the vets, and even after a 3 hour operation they could not save him, he died on 8pm the same day the video was taken. All of this because his owners, who are from France, decided to wait until the last minute to buy a wedding gift at Ikea when driving to Spain for a wedding.
Now this pisses me off BEYOND BELIEF. Being a dog owner myself, I completely understand how you could want your dog to go EVERYWHERE with you. Hell, half the time I don’t want to go out cause I know that means crating my baby and leaving him for a few hours. But I do it, because I know that he’ll be safe and cool at home in his crate. Especially as the summer starts to heat up. Now, I don’t know the circumstances of this couple, but, why leave the dog in the car for THAT long? You’re going to a wedding, pick an item off the registry beforehand and go pick it up that day, leave someone in the car with the dog, and be in and out. Don’t leave the dog for FOUR HOURS in a boiling car. How could they even stay in Ikea shopping for this long? I know Ikea is huge, but really? You have a mission, get in, buy, get out. You have a living being in the car, MAKE THAT YOUR FUCKING PRIORITY. And the fact that they didn’t, I mean, what did they think would happen?
Now, I am going to take a break from my rant and educate you all on the exactly what happens to your dog while he/she is waiting for you in the car. Some of this I didn’t even know, and it’s incredibly important for any dog owner to know these facts:
*As you go down this list, the temperature is increasing in the make believe car we are using for this situation*
First, their cooling mechanism kicks in:
*Panting and drooling starts
*Blood vessels dilate
*Their blood pressure is affected:
*The heart works harder to supply blood to the dilated vessels
*Blood starts to pool in organs
*Blood pressure starts to drop
Their organs then start to become damaged:
*Kidney cells suffer thermal damage
*Small blood clots form, causing kidney damage
*The cells lining the intestine and stomach suffer thermal damage. This leads to severe bloody diarrhea and vomiting
*Liver cells die due to severe thermal damage
*Tiny blood clots form in the brain and the brain swells
Their bodies eventually reach the temperature of 109 degrees fahrenheit:
*This causes irreversible brain damage, seizures, coma, and eventually death.
There is also a study done that even on a cool day (70 degrees fahrenheit is considered cool in this case), the temperature inside a car can be 40 degrees higher than outside. So always keep this in mind, because this means that cracking a window makes very little difference…
So please, keep all this in mind when traveling with your furry friends during this summer, or any summer for that matter. There are also ways to help treat your dog’s heat exhaustion if it ever comes down to it, a link to some ways, and more info about dogs in hot cars is here.
But let’s get real people, never leave your dog in a hot car. That is unfair to both the dog, and yourself. And I, personally, believe anyone who leaves their dog in a car, should be forced to sit in the car in the same exact conditions so they can understand just what their dog had to endure while they were gone.
This summer, make sure that you take all the preventative measures that you can to keep your pup safe. This means don’t leave them in the hot car. And make sure that if the pavement is too hot for your own feet, or the back of your hand, KEEP YOUR DOG OFF THAT PAVEMENT. You don’t want them burning their little paws now do we? Treat your dog as you would yourself, or what have one?
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