Reporter calls police when 2 dogs left in hot car in Newmarket
YorkRegion.com
Aug. 14, 2017
Lisa Queen
My receipt shows I bought chicken and mushrooms at the Metro store at the 404 plaza in Newmarket at 4:28 p.m. on Aug. 13.
When I got into my car a minute later, I noticed two small dogs in the van beside me.
The windows were cracked a bit, maybe two inches on the passenger side and about an inch on the driver’s side.
It was hot and sunny.
Environment Canada put the temperature at that time at about 25 C, not including the humidity.
“Parked cars can quickly reach deadly temperatures, even on relatively mild days with the car parked in the shade and the windows slightly open,” according to the website nothotpets.ca, which counts the Ontario SPCA as one of its partners.
“Dogs have a limited ability to sweat; even a short time in a hot environment can be life-threatening. A dog’s normal body temperature is about 39 C, a temperature of 41 C can be withstood only for a very short time before irreparable brain damage or even death can occur.”
Even when I turned on the mediocre air conditioning in my nine-year-old car, it was hot.
The dogs were panting but didn’t appear to be in distress, although I wasn’t sure how quickly they could go downhill.
I checked to see if the van was running, thinking maybe the owner had left it on with the air conditioning on.
No such luck.
I waited a few minutes to see if the owner would return and then called York Regional Police.
An officer arrived, but said he had to leave on another call.
A few minutes after that, another cruiser arrived, followed by another one a few minutes after that.
One officer tried opening the doors of the van, but they were locked. She went into Metro to have the owner paged and came back out.
Several minutes later, just before 5 p.m., the owner of the vehicle came out with a buggy.
When the officer questioned the woman about leaving her dogs in a parked car for at least half an hour, she argued she had left the windows open for them.
She was given a warning.
