WOW! That is too sad! Thanks for the info....Anna

Lindsay, I found this site on stolen dogs used for dog fighting bate.....Very distrubing.

http://www.hsus.org/pets/issues_affecting_our_pets/pet_overpopulation_and_ownership_statistics/fate_of_many_lost_pets.html

I don't want to go into big details on this, but I do want to say that this is something the emergency rescue world sees all the time. The SPCA or local A/C will raid a dog-fighting place (and it seems that drug-dealing is often related) and seize the dogs.

The bait dogs, of course, are seized and evaluated as well as the dogs made to fight.

One of the dogs seized a few years ago was a Pug with his ears hacked off (a home job). Such a flat-faced dog (very little ability to defend with teeth) would be used as "beginner" bait to build the confidence of a young fighting dog "in training." Non-bracheocephalic bait dogs (including puppies) would have their muzzles taped shut for building confidence in beginner fighting dogs.

And this, friends, is NOT going into detail.

Please do not think that any breed is safe from this fate; from fighting to becoming training "bait," they can all be used. And then there are the dogs sold to research labs.

I shudder every time I read here that someone leaves their dogs in the yard all day, or in a car -- ever, or (incredible to me) running loose. I cringe when I see dogs tied to parking meters or poles outside stores, gyms, and even movie theaters.

This may sound over-the-top, but I'm part-time in the emergency-rescue world and it's not over the top to me. If I am not there, my dogs are not visible to the public. Period.

Well that is enough detail for me....These type of people are not worth the air they breath.

Oh, my goodness. I never knew. I take mine with me all the time, always have. I leave the a/c on in the summer and heat (if necessary) in the winter. I have an extra key to get in the car.

I live in a small town. Is that common in small towns. I've never hear or read about anyone having a car broken in to get a dog. Or anything else for that matter. My little dog loves going bye bye so much, I always take her.

HELP

Something to consider about leaving dogs in cars...

I recall a story about a Police Department that lost one of their K9s when the AC in the car failed...

The temperature in a car can raise dramatically, in a very short period of time even if the outside temperature is relatively comfortable.

 Quote: nora ferrell

Oh, my goodness. I never knew. I take mine with me all the time, always have. I leave the a/c on in the summer and heat (if necessary) in the winter. I have an extra key to get in the car.

I live in a small town. Is that common in small towns. I've never hear or read about anyone having a car broken in to get a dog. Or anything else for that matter. My little dog loves going bye bye so much, I always take her.

HELP

I always did too, Nora, until a few years ago when I started learning that this stuff was not limited to big cities or "bad" neighborhoods. I live in a very temperate climate and just did not take them if it was over 65 degrees or so, and otherwise they came with me everywhere, and I left the windows all cracked open.

Now I just do not. Unless I have someone with me and we take turns staying in the car at each stop (which actually can work nicely in many cases, with one of us taking both banking items in, then the other one picking up both prescriptions, then first one getting the dry cleaning for both.....)

This going in the car is such a nice part of socializing the dog that it seems worth it to me to work it out if possible.

But I no longer think it's worth it to leave my dogs visible without me (or other human) there.

Maybe others will have suggestions.

 Quote: nora ferrell

I live in a small town. ..... I've never hear or read about anyone having a car broken in to get a dog.

My town is not small enough. Yours may actually be, though, if you are not near a city. I don't know. Maybe everyone in your town knows your car, etc. Most of us are probably not in that size community, though.

I don't want to turn the thread into a fear-mongering thing. Maybe if we turn our attention to socializing safely .... to ways to get our dogs out and about safely .... ? Safe from overheating, stolen car-with-dog, and stolen dogs.

I do the same as you Connie, I take them when two of use are going to be in the car, or when I am going places with all drive throughs, here that means I can go to the bank, pharmacy, dry cleaners, and to get a gallon of milk.

I am always suprised by how many places keep dog treats near their drive through windows!

There is also a place here called the riverwalk that is a strip of restaurants and shops in an outdoor plaza type setting.

The dogs aren't allowed in the restaurants but you can sit at their outdoor tables and eat dinner with your dogs and people watch and socialize them to groups of people without it being a huge crowd or somewhere like petsmart where there are too many other dogs for comfort!

Just yesterday, here in good ol' minimal crime Vermont, I came out of the grocery store after being in there only about five minutes to find three guys standing behind my car, poking at the window, looking at my dog.

I heard one of them talking about letting him out (the car was locked, of course). He said "what do you think would happen if I let this dog out?" I snuck up behind them and said "I would let him eat you" before I quickly got into my car and started the engine. They actually didn't even move away until I started backing up toward them. They probably didn't mean anything by it but it still freaked me out.

The thought of even the possibility that my dog could wind up in the hands of those morons makes me sick. That was enough convincing for me.

I'm running a fine line here because I'm not going to relate horror stories here.

But Kristel's scary story could be anywhere, and with a much worse ending.

I like that drive-through idea from Jennifer!

I love the idea of saving gasoline, increasing the dogs' exposure to other humans, and having someone always in the car with them, just by running errands with someone else. I'm sure that the people on this board know to restrain dogs in a car anyway, so it's not like anther person will accidentally leave the car open long enough for a dog to zoom out.