Photo by Phil Monahan
In yesterday’s Philadelphia Inquirer, columnist Lisa Scottoline tells the story of what happened when she discovered a little dog stuck in a hot car on an 87-degree day. Although she injects a fair bit of humor into the story, you can tell that she is dead serious:
I didn’t see the dog’s owner anywhere. I hurried into the store, looked around, and told the shopkeeper. They made an announcement, but the dog’s owner wasn’t in the store. I went back to the car and stuck my hand in the cracked window, and it barely fit. I could feel how ungodly hot it was in the car. The dog pawed the window, frantically.
Soon the cops show up, and then things get kind of loud. The nonchalance of the dog owner is, of course, infuriating, but it’s great to see someone with a powerful public forum doing the right thing and spreading the word about the danger of hot cars.
This looks like my beautiful grand dog Eddie, who belongs to Chrissy Penn and Tyler Atkins who work at Orvis HQ…I am assuming this is a just picture you used, as I know they would not subject Eddie to a hot car on a hot day…I would hate for anyone to think that of them! 🙂
It amazes me how common it is for people to leave their dogs in the car when they’re out doing the most mundane things. I’ve seen so many dogs in cars while I’m shopping or at a restaurant, I’ve always wondered why they brought them along to begin with. It’s horrible to do it in the summer, it’s extremely dangerous, but why do people do it at all?
I don’t love leaving my dog home alone when I go out but I don’t see any reason to bring her along if it’s to go shopping, I think she’d be much more anxious waiting in a car then asleep on the couch at home.