Category: Animal Charities

When to rescue a distressed dog from a hot car.

44% of motorists admitted in a survey to leaving their dog in a car & 77% of these on a hot day.

Every year for as far back as I can remember, and that’s a long time, dog owners have continued to ignore all advice about leaving their dogs in cars. It is not a fair or sensible action in any circumstance, but particularly reckless and thoughtless on hot and humid days. A recent survey in 2017 by Confused.com discovered that 44% of motorists admitted to leaving their dog unattended in a car and worryingly 70% of those also admitted they had left their dog for over 8 minutes on a hot day.

Confused.com also attempted to find out how many people would intervene if they saw a distressed dog in a car. They used a lifelike toy dog and played sound effects of it in distress and more than 74% of drivers failed to come to its aid. An interesting point of this survey was that 23% of people did not know their legal rights if they were to cause damage while rescuing the dog and were not sure who to call for assistance.

Would you break a window to rescue a dog from a hot car?

Would you be the person to risk being prosecuted for damaging a car or would you pass the buck to someone else? Of course the conundrum would not arise if we all acted like the dog lovers we are supposed to be.

Under section 5(2)(a) of the Criminal Justice Act 1971 you can damage someone’s property if you think the owner of the property would consent if they were aware of the situation. The problem is that if you did decide to commit the act, the odds are against you getting away with it, because dog owners are quick to take offence if anyone dares to accuse them of not looking after their pet properly and are likely to report you.

Back in the day it was far easier to break into cars if you knew some of the tricks of the trade, but new cars are far more sophisticated. I have called out the police in the past who have managed to get in without causing damage while others have turned up, asked me if I agreed the dog was at risk and just smashed the window with no ceremony.

But how do you judge whether a dog is at immediate risk, how long it has been in the car and how long before it is likely to succumb to heatstroke? There is no real answer to that and this is where you can get into trouble for unnecessarily taking drastic action. Some breeds are more prone than others. Flat nose breeds have difficulty in breathing at the best of times so should never be left and old dogs are also more prone.

Cars can become ovens in a matter of minutes with or without the windows open – that’s why we like to have the air-con on when we are in them.

Can you recognise heatstroke in a dog?

A dog will pant excessively trying to expel heat from its body. It will also salivate or drool. In latter stages the dog will vomit, collapse, become unconscious and die without help. It is not a pleasant death.

So what to do?

It all depends on the situation. Most people have mobile phones so take a photo or better still a video of the dog, the car registration, the car park ticket if there is one and where it is parked in the sun, although it can get hot without direct sun. You can use this information to make a complaint to the police. At a shopping mall or event you can go to customer services and get an announcement made.

If the dog has symptoms of heatstroke call the police on 999 -not the RSPCA who do not have powers (as we won’t let them), or the manpower to get there quickly. Don’t let the police fob you off to the RSPCA. If you intend breaking in tell the police you are about to commit the act and why.

The bottom line is that we shouldn’t need to have this discussion if dog owners just acted sensibly and thought more of their dog’s welfare.

The only dog that can be left in a car.
More info on heatstroke

A case for equal rights for cats.

Cats are just about on a par with dogs in the popularity stakes as a companion pet with dogs just edging it so in theory we should be treating their interests and rights equally. But unfortunately it appears that cats do not have the same PR status as dogs with cats tending to be ignored in favour of dogs and in many instances virtually discriminated against.

Cats cannot do anything right.

As a society we do not take their welfare and interests as seriously as dogs. There is a definite bias in the law with most regulating and protecting dogs while cats are mostly disregarded and left legally owner-less. Recently the UK introduced a new law controlling puppy farming but not kitten farming, although it did bring in new rules protecting the sale of kittens. There is no mandatory microchipping as there is with dogs and you must report a dog injured in a road traffic collision but not a cat. We have had a cat crisis in the UK for years with thousands of stray and feral cats roaming the country, but no government initiative to solve the problem unlike dogs where we introduced dog wardens.

Dog and cat
Cats and dogs give us equal affection and loyalty so why do we treat them differently.

There is only one national cat animal charity in the UK compared with several that concentrate on dogs and it only receives half the donations of just one of those helping dogs. “I hate cats” is a more often heard phrase than “I hate dogs“. The internet is awash with implements and gizmos including electronic and ultrasonic scarers, motion water sprinklers and prickle strips to drench, electrocute and generally maim them and even pellets impregnated with the essence of lion dung is sold to ward them off.

We basically allow dogs to poo where they want and we mostly turn a blind eye to all the abandoned plastic bags whereas cats are still vilified for messing in a flower bed even though they have the decency to cover up their toiletry antics unlike dogs. We allow dogs to roam open spaces, chase wildlife and livestock and often cause a nuisance but cats are maligned for roaming free and following their predatory instincts of stalking birds and small animals. We commit more cruelty on cats for these reasons and in some parts of the world attempt to ban their keeping or legally confine indoors.

Television documentaries nearly all focus on dogs with cats rarely getting a look in, so we have the Dog Rescuers and For the Love of Dogs with Paul O’Grady to name just two. Then we have the annual coverage of Crufts Dog Show but to my knowledge never a cat show. Battersea Dogs Home is also a cats home, but this part of the title is rarely referred to. There are so many examples of how we denigrate cats in preference to dogs.

Cats win over dogs on social media.

The one place that cats win over dogs appears to be internet social media sites and unfortunately for the wrong reasons. People love to make videos of cats being silly or cute or being forced to do unnatural acts so that we can have a good laugh at them. Most of them are not funny at all and cats could do without them. There are dozens of ‘famous cats’ getting millions of hits like Grumpy cat or keyboard cat videos of a ginger cat in a dress playing a toy piano or a cat in a shark costume on a roomba chasing a duckling. There is sadly no end to them.

In the real world there is no way of ignoring the fact that cats rank second to dogs in our modern society and are far more maligned than the dog. This has come about as many people do not like the fact that they are so independent of us and difficult to dominate. They have a take it or leave it attitude towards us. We view them as less of a companion pet as we cannot share as many of our interests with them such as hiking, a car drive or a trip down the shops and because of this we do not care as much about them. It is also why we are less concerned about so many millions being culled and killed around the world each year when a single healthy dog being euthanised causes such outrage.

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