Category: Pet Keeping

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

“Saving Britain’s Worst Zoo.”

BBC documentary “Saving Britain’s Worst Zoo” highlights what is so wrong with our attitude to zoos.

There shouldn’t be a ‘worst’ zoo in the UK in the first place.

BBC Wales and iPlayer are showing a documentary series “Saving Britains Worst Zoo” which depicts how a family buy a zoo called ‘Animalarium’ in Wales even though they admit “We didn’t have any idea of what we were doing.” There shouldn’t be a worst zoo in the first place if licensing authorities and inspectors were doing their job properly. So where were they and how can it be possible to allow such people to buy a zoo with dangerous animals? Do we really take public and animal safety so lightly.

“a place in the deepest depths of no-onesville very much like a zoo where species of a non-human form are kept and caged…and often escape”

ANIMALARIUM – Urban Dictionary definition.

In 2016 a zoo called Animalarium in the town of Borth, Wales came up for sale and was bought by a couple who by their own admission didn’t have any experience and within two years animals had escaped and died and they ran up a £350,000 debt. But sadly it appears few people see any problem or query how this could happen in our country of animal lovers with all our animal protection laws.

This is particularly so with the BBC, who appear to be encouraging such actions by not just showing one program but a whole series to advertise the zoo. The owners were interviewed on the BBC Breakfast show on the 23 July 2019 with smiles and commendation for their honesty as though they were some kind of heroes.

Borth Zoo or to use its hip name of Animalarium was sold by its owners of 15 years in 2016. In their media advertising of the sale they described who they were willing to sell to in this way:

“I would expect them to have at least some interest or experience and to research what running a zoo actually entails. The practical problems are a cross between running a boarding school and a prison. Anyone interested in the sale needs to have some experience of keeping exotic animals, but not necessarily from a zoo background as the staff are all experienced. Running a zoo is hard work but very rewarding.”

“We didn’t have any idea of what we were doing”

The family who bought the zoo were an “animal-mad couple” with three children who always wanted to live in Wales and were quoted as saying “we wanted a small petting farm to do animal and people therapy. We had 40 animals before we moved. We used to breed tortoises and had chickens, rabbits, chinchillas, everything. We didn’t have much of an idea what we were doing but everything I don’t know I research.” It would appear they also bought it as it had a nice two bedroom bungalow with sea views and of course they were animal lovers and had owned pets so had all the experience they needed to take on a zoo.

Should such animals be in the hands of people who do not what they are doing.

Their initial inept attempts at operating a zoo led to escapes and deaths of animals. In October 2017, a lynx escaped for 12 days before being shot in case it harmed “children.” A week later a staff member managed to strangle another lynx with a catch-pole (a rope noose on a pole) which was described as an accident but was probably due to lack of training in using such an implement. In the case of the escaped Lynx it was two days before they noticed it missing because the enclosure was apparently too overgrown to spot it. It seemed not to occur to them to search the enclosure in case it was sick, injured or dead.

At this point the local authority intervened and closed the zoo to the public for five months while they made over 26 improvements allegedly running up a debt of £350,000. Initially their licence to keep dangerous animals such as the lions and leopard was withdrawn but later reinstated. The zoo was obviously rundown when they bought it which doesn’t say much for the local authority licensing officers who should have been checking it. Inexplicably, the ban on keeping dangerous “category one” animals was then lifted by Ceredigion council as long as a qualified keeper was present. But why wasn’t there a qualified keeper in the first place?

The park’s owners claim that they act like a rescue centre for exotic animals and take in unwanted pets and animals from other zoos to provide them with a safe place to live for the rest of their lives. But how safe are their long term prospects.

One could pardon them on account of their naivety and put it all down as a steep learning curve, but at what cost. At least two lives of beautiful lynxes were lost while they learned on the job. Do we really take such lives so lightly. Should we be allowing the sale of zoos and similar animal attractions to anyone who feels they want to own one despite their experience and qualification. I blame the local authorities and lack of regulation for the deaths of the two lynxes.

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