Animals left in hot trailer face certain death
"When I opened the door I heard what sounded like someone struggling to breathe."
A furious animal lover called the police after she noticed dogs in a hot trailer at the Valley View Retail Centre.
“My daughter-in-law and I were sitting in the car waiting for my husband to return from the store. We opened the doors because it was so hot that we needed fresh air,” said Merie Gresse, a devout animal lover and director at Nordic Rescue.
Photo: Submitted
“When I opened the door I heard what sounded like someone struggling to breathe. I got out of the car and walked to a trailer nearby from which the sound seemed to be coming.
That’s when I saw a boerbul and another dog with long hair in the trailer.”
Merie went to the security guards at the centre and brought the matter to their attention, because she believed this was animal cruelty.
“We waited about 40 minutes with the dogs and contacted the police within that time.”
The police said that they would wait for the owners and thanked Merie for bringing the issue to their attention.
There are hundreds of articles that mention why it’s dangerous for you to keep your dogs in a car or a trailer in the sun. The Globe and Mail posted an article about how dogs are affected by cars in the sun.
Read more: Boerbull dragged for about 2km
Here are 10 reasons why you shouldn’t leave a dog in a car:
• Parked cars become death traps for dogs. Without proper ventilation, temperatures soon soar in a locked car.
• On an average summer’s day in Krugersdorp, it’s about 27 degrees Celsius outside. The dashboard temperature can easily be 82 degrees Celsius or hotter within minutes of standing in the sun.
• After 30 minutes, it’s 19 degrees Celsius hotter in a car than it is outside.
• It’s never the intention of the owner to stay in the shop long. However, saying ‘I’ll just be five minutes’ doesn’t help. It’s never just five minutes. And a few extra minutes in a hot car is long enough to kill a pet. You can get distracted in the shop and end up spending a lot more time there.
• Pets get heatstroke much faster than children, because they can’t cool themselves off by sweating – they only have sweat glands on their paws and they don’t do much good on a hot car seat. They try to cool off by panting but that’s useless when they’re panting in that hot, hot air.
• Dogs pant to keep cool and quickly overheat in hot cars where there is no free flow of air. Leaving windows slightly open will not keep your car cool enough.
Photo: Submitted
To read more click on: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-drive/culture/commuting/how-long-can-a-dog-safely-be-left-in-a-vehicle/article19813059/
What can you do if you see a dog in a hot car?
• Take down the car make, colour and registration number and have the owner paged at the closest building to alert him/ her to the animal’s distress.
• Contact your local SPCA or police immediately.
• Don’t leave the scene until the situation is resolved.
Do you perhaps have more information pertaining to this story? Email us at krugersdorpnews@caxton.co.za or phone us on 011 955 1130.
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