I was at the superstore on walker road today around noon and a man parked next to me, left only his front windows down maybe 6" and went inside.... With his large dog in the back seat! I wasn't sure what to do, even though I've seen many posts from the humane society specifically telling owners not to leave pets in their vehicles. I stopped a women walking by, and asked what I should do. It was about 75 degrees at the time, but I know inside the car can get much hotter and fast. She was as concerned as I was. The dog was not in distress at the time, so she called non emergent police line and they said to contact the humane society. I called and they said they'd be right over. While waiting for the HS, a fire truck showed up to get groceries, so I went over and told them what was going on. They came over and one fire fighter waited with us while the HS was on their way. 15min later they showed up. At this point it had been 30min since the man went into the store. Basically the HS said there's nothing legally a bystander can do besides call them and report it, but most times the owners are long gone before they arrive.
I just don't understand with all the information these days, and the HS putting out so much information asking owners not to do this, it's still done. Every day. If you own a dog PLEASE do not leave them in your vehicles! If you are out running errands, leave your pets at home! Or leave your car running, locked, with the air conditioning on. There was another van parked a few over and I could hear the dogs barking but they had left it running with the air on. Use some common sense people! I am not even a big dog lover, but this still bothered me! When will people wake up??
I still don't know what to do if faced with this situation again. If a dog is in distress, and I brake a window, and help the dog, and call 911, what if someone comes out and attacks me because I broke their window? What if I get charged with vandalism? What if I have to pay for their window? That's not something I want to happen.... So what are we supposed to do??
What ended up happening was the fire fighter went inside and had the man paged by vehicle description and license plate and was told to come out. The total time he was in there was about 45 minutes, and he could very well have been longer if he wasn't paged because he came out empty handed. The HS handed him a pamphlet and educated him on he subject. I sure hope he learned something and will not do this again! The dog was ok.
We ALL should be paying attention to vehicles while we walk through parking lots this summer. At least 50+ people passed us during this time and no one else noticed. If we can all pay a little more attention maybe we can save some pets this summer!