I've been pretty forward a couple of times in the past .... including breaking a window and sliding in a bowl of water while someone else distracted the dog to the other side, and of course including calling 911.

But what is the best thing to do?

Well I'm my case, I brought it to the attention of the owner, and then got the sack for 'being unacceptably rude to a visitor to the business'

If I couldn't find the owner, and the dog was in distress, I would take the chance and break the window, then call the police and tell them what I had done, and to hell with the consequences.

"Well I'm my case, I brought it to the attention of the owner, and then got the sack for 'being unacceptably rude to a visitor to the business'"

I cannot say in polite terms what I think of that.




When I broke the window (with the help of another onlooker), all I heard was abject apology and thanks from the extremely tardy owner (I'm talking two hours in the sun on an 85-degree day).

Like you, I wouldn't give a crap if the owner WAS angry. Don't care. Do not care. Take me to court for your damned window.

You may be able to tell from my outrage that this came up again today, by the movie theater downtown ..... two tiny terriers in a small car with everything shut tight, IN THE SUN, with 1.75 hrs gone on the meter. What in the world is that inside the car? 120 degrees F., maybe?

A fb friend of mine is a bit of an activist, and on her days off, goes round car parks and takes photos of the owners returning to their car with the broken window, and berates the bejeezus out of them.

She happily takes the abuse, then posts their photo on fb.

She was actually yelled at by a woman returning with her shopping, who told her she works for dogs trust - which is probably the most well known rescue in the UK after Battersea - proclaiming she knows what she's doing, which apparently includes leaving a long haired dog in a car on a hot day.

Good grief

A few years ago there was a dog killed in a hot car at the local university. The campus cops busted the window on the car, got the dog out and rushed it to the vet- about a mile away. It was gone- the vet said it's liver temp was over 110 degrees. The owners were blase about the whole thing, even when the cops chewed them out. They were expelled from the university over the whole thing.

In town here, if you call the police dept, they may or may not respond to a report of a dog in a hot car. Most officers will respond, but there are a few that won't - even if they aren't on another call... I was dispatcher one day when we had a report of a dog in a hot car, and the zone officer refused to respond. I ended up going over his head and assigning the float car to the call- the original zone officer made my life a living hell the rest of the time I worked for the police dept- he was snotty on the radio to me and wouldn't answer when I asked a question. I certainly don't regret what I did, though. The dog ended up OK, but the officer that did respond said it would have been a different story if it had been much longer....

I'm in Phoenix so there's no "It was just 5 minutes!" excuse. Even with the A/C running it's just too damn hot. I call the police. They are very quick to respond and the fines are pretty high. They are quite happy to bust the window and cite the owner for everything they can.

Out here you can call if a dog is left in a yard without "adequate shelter" and plentiful water. They even specify that a dog house is not considered adequate shelter if it's still in direct sunlight. I've called a few times on a neighbor who would leave a single bowl with maybe 2 cups of water out for a pack of 4 chihuahuas all day. I overheard the officer telling her off for it pretty firmly and she put out a good sized livestock feeding pan full after that. They had a shaded porch to retreat to but they were out of water by the time those folks got home every day.

I broke into a van yrs ago when I came up on a group of people banging on the windows and side of it. There was a big Newf laying on it's side, breathing heavily and not reaction to the racket being made on the van.
I broke the window and as the dog was being pulled out the owner arrived. He didn't say squat about the dog, just screaming who broke his ******* window.
I said I did it and he started cussing me out and chest bumping me so I kicked in his grill and asked no less calm then he was what else he wanted broken. He calmed down a bit and a LEO arrived just ahead of the FD.
I heard later the dog came around 100%....and no charges filed after the crowd explained my actions.
Now that I'm just nice old granpa I probably would give my actions more thought........I hope!

in our area a few months ago a dog walker went shopping and left six dogs in her car, didn't even walk em. They all died, she dumped their bodies in a ditch and lied to all the owners saying they were stolen. I cannot even begin to fathom what the poor dogs went through it made me ill for weeks just imagining them wondering where the human who is supposed to protect them is. Then to lie and give hope to the poor owners, she received death threats, imo it was no accident it was blantant neglect and she deserves everything she has coming and more, she is apparently being charged now.

Working at an animal shelter we would of course get the vigilante calls of dogs in cars on cloudy spring days, it rarely gets hot here. The protocol is to call animal control and then the police and if the police give you permission you are allowed to break a window. You could go into the store also and have them paged, leave a note, wait for them to come out etc and all depending on heat and how long dogs been in there and state of dog.

Been an unusually hot summer here and on a plus 30 day, Canada day a guy had an overweight dog in a car windows barely down, dog seemed bit sketchy so wasn't sticking my hand in to give water. Dog was panting and it was over 10 minutes. Called non emergency but was on hold, was gunna hang up and call 911 when my fiancée went and knocked on door of house and it was guys friends dog. Had a few choice words for him you better believe!

I think some people take it too far, since the incident here im paranoid to leave my dogs in car to grab a coffee on a mild day. But at the same time it boggles my mind that dogs and kids for that matter are still dying. Theres no excuse, its everywhere how dangerous that is. Theres just no reason in the world it should be happening this much still and im glad people are looking out for it more.

"in our area a few months ago a dog walker went shopping and left six dogs in her car, didn't even walk em. They all died, she dumped their bodies in a ditch and lied to all the owners saying they were stolen. I cannot even begin to fathom what the poor dogs went through it made me ill for weeks just imagining them wondering where the human who is supposed to protect them is. Then to lie and give hope to the poor owners, she received death threats, imo it was no accident it was blantant neglect and she deserves everything she has coming and more, she is apparently being charged now."

OMG.