The Danger of Leaving Your Pet In The Car

Pets are beloved members of the family. It only makes sense that you want to take them along with you in the car to run errands or for short trips into town. Unfortunately, hundreds of pets die every year from being left alone in parked cars. Our Lake of the Ozarks car dealership wants to make sure that this tragedy does not happen to your pets.The more you know, the easier it will be to avoid this type of disaster. Just like children, pets should never be left unattended inside of a vehicle. You may think that they will be fine for a minute or two while you run indoors, but a lot can happen in a couple of minutes.

Excessive Heat

The inside of a car, even with a window cracked, is much hotter than the outside temperature, and that heat rises quickly after the car is turned off. After only 10 minutes, the inside temperature can already be 20 degrees hotter than it is outside, and every single minute that temperature keeps rising.

Parking in the shade does not keep the inside of a car from heating up quickly. Cracking the window does not help at all, and leaving the window down more than just a crack could result in your pet escaping and getting hurt or lost.

Animals pant to release heat from their body, and the only place that they can actually sweat is through their paws. Overheating can result in heatstroke, brain damage, and even death. Do not leave your pets in the car in cold months either. While they are sheltered from the wind, temperatures can drop quickly and they could freeze.

Running Cars

You may think that it is okay to leave your animal in the car as long as you leave the air conditioner running for them. This is untrue for a couple of different reasons. First of all, animals do not understand how vehicles work. They could easily put it into gear simply by being their naturally active selves and moving around.

There have also been cases where the air conditioning failed while the owner was away, resulting in hot air being blown out of the vents. This caused the interior to heat up even faster than it would have if the car was not running at all.

Breaking the Law

Leaving an adorable pet inside your car could cause animal-loving thieves to break in and take your pet for themselves. Also, rather than causing someone else to break the law, you might be in trouble yourself. Many states have laws against leaving an animal unattended in a motor vehicle, and for the states that do not, some of their towns have laws of their own against this.

What You Can Do

Leave your pets at home if you know that you will be going someplace that they will not be able to enter. If you see someone else's pet in an unattended vehicle, note the color, make, model, and license plate number of the car. Have the owner paged if it in a store parking lot. If there is no way to find the owner and warn them that their pet is in danger, call the humane authorities or the police.

Keep an eye on the animal until help arrives. If you believe the pet is in immediate danger and feel the need to remove it from the car before help shows up, get a witness to corroborate that you were attempting to save the animal's life before trying to remove it from the car. Remember, an animal that does not know you can be dangerous, so it's wisest to wait for the proper authorities to take care of the situation.

Hulett Chevrolet-Buick-GMC firmly believes that no animal should ever be left alone in a vehicle. It can be harmful to your car, and it can be deadly for your pet. In the long run, it's always much better to be safe than sorry when it comes to taking care of the ones you love.

Hulett Chevrolet Buick GMC
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513 N. Business Route 5
Camdenton, MO  65020
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