Rising Temperatures Bring Up Concerns With Leaving Animals In Vehicles

With this week’s heat, a reminder about pets in vehicles.

Putnam County Animal Shelter Director Jennifer Tracy said that owners leaving pets in cars even for short periods of time can lead to trouble.

“It gets dangerously hot very, very quickly, even with the windows cracked, when the weather is this hot,” Tracy said. “If you couldn’t sit in your car with the windows cracked for five minutes without breaking a sweat, then your dogs and cats don’t need to be there either.”

Tracy said that unless you can leave the car running with the air conditioning on, it’s better to simply leave your pets at home. She said that if you see an animal stuck in a vehicle you have the ability to do what you can to get the animal out, but suggests calling law enforcement for backup.

“There’s actually a law now in Tennessee that if you see an animal in distress you can break into that car without fear of any kind of punishment,” Tracy said. “But I’d still call law enforcement to back you up on that one.”

Tracy said that as important as it is to keep animals out of hot cars, it’s just as important to care for them generally when temperatures are high.

“For one thing they need to have fresh, cool water available to them at all times,” Tracy said. “There needs to be shade provided for them. And walking your dogs on hot sidewalks and the asphalt and all that, they can burn their paw pads. So try to stay on the grass and if you can’t stay on the grass, consider getting them protection for their feet.”