SUMMER HEAT ALERT!

by Roberta Lee, DD., PhD., ND. TheDogPlace.org Science Editor

I would like to take this time to tell you a very short TRUE story. I know that it is true because it happened to me the other day at the supermarket. I believe in what I do. And I am not afraid to speak up for animals.

We are the only voices that they have, so if I see something that I think is potentially harmful to an animals I will tell the owner or person in charge of that animal at the time. I try to be polite, and I try to say things in the, “by the way did you know,” type of way. But there are those people that just don’t want to know, and they wouldn’t act any differently if they did know. Here is the story.

It was a very hot day in the last week of July. The temperature gauge in my car was reading 98 degrees outside. As I pulled into a parking space, and opened my door to the furnace of the blacktop, I heard a dog barking in panic. In the row in front of me a red convertible with a black top was totally closed up. Not one little crack in the windows. A Shar Pei was scratching wildly at the window. I walked over to the car to see if there was something that I could do. The car was locked, and no one was in sight. I was getting ready to call the police when an older man pushing a grocery cart FULL of bags came my way.

I told myself that I must approach this with calm, no matter how furious I was. So, in a very low voice, with a smile on my face, I said to the man as he got to his car, “Sir, did you know that it is against the law in Georgia to leave an animal in a car in this type of heat?”

“You’re a #@%@ liar, there is no such law.” He shouted back at me. Fighting for composure, again very quietly, I replied, “Yes sir there is. It was passed the first of this year, but besides that, don’t you know that dogs can die in a hot car?” Again shouting and red in the face, he replied, “It’s my damned dog and I will do what ever I damned well please with him.” Trying to reason with him I said “But sir, I know you don’t want your dog to die, and if you look at him now he is wild with panic” “Get out of my face you @#%**.” He shouted.

By this time he had the door opened and the dog all but flew out of the car. The poor dog was gasping for air and running in circles.

I looked at the dog and then at the man, and said with a smile on my face. “You know sir, I’m from California, and we hear so much about how the men in the South are all southern gentlemen, but you have just disproved that myth.”

And with that I walked away, but the man sputtered after me, “go vote for Hillary Clinton, you **#@, she’s your kind of woman.”

I was so angry that when I got into the supermarket, I just stood in the cool store wondering why in the world a person like that would have a dog! Any dog. He obviously didn’t know about dogs, and he seemed to care less. As I was slowing down my blood pressure, a man walked up to me and smiled. As he stretched out his hand, he said, “Thank you for what you just did. I was getting ready to call the authorities myself, but you really told that man. I couldn’t believe that you never even raised your voice once. Weren’t you angry?”

“Oh yes,” I said, “but you never teach anything in anger, so I forced myself to stay calm but it was one of the hardest things I have even done.” The man shook my hand again and said, “we need more people like you.”

I’m not telling you this story to pat myself on the back. I am speaking for every dog in the world. If you love your pet, then NEVER, NEVER, NEVER take them with you in the car on a hot summer day.

You see, dogs don’t sweat like you and I do. As we perspire, sweat on the surface of the skin cools us as the breeze blows over the surface of the skin. Not so for our four legged friends. The dog sweats through the pads of his feet, by panting and from his nose. When the interior of your car is 75 degrees, that is the equivalent of 85 degrees to you or me. Have you ever gotten into your car when it had been sitting in the sun for a period of time? You remember how it almost takes your breath away? How the steering wheel burns your hands? All right, now imagine how the dog must feel with no air circulating, just baking in 120 degrees. A dog can die in just 10 minutes in that type of heat. So, be kind to your pet and leave him home next time you run an errand.

And for all who read this. Don’t be shy! Speak up when you see something that is a danger to an animal, remember..., they can’t speak for themselves.

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