North Yorkshire Police are warning dog owners not to leave their pets unattended in cars during the hot weather.
Officers in Thirsk were forced to smash a window of a grey Citroen C5 in the Market Place yesterday (Monday 4 July 2011) to rescue two dogs who appeared to be in distress having being left in the vehicle without any water.
The owner had left two windows open by around three inches but the car still reached a dangerous temperature.
The dogs were spotted at around 3.15pm by an off duty officer, who called for assistance to free them.
The owner of the dogs, who had a lucky escape, was given strong words of advice from police. Officers are now warning dog owners that they are prepared to force their way into vehicles if animals appear to be overheating.
Sergeant Frances Hannan, of Thirsk Safer Neighbourhood Team, said: “Obviously smashing a vehicle’s windows is a last resort but we are prepared to take decisive action if we see dogs left in hot cars.
“Animals can quickly overheat and owners must be responsible and think about the welfare of their pets during this spell of warm weather.
“Even leaving dogs for a short period of time can have devastating consequences, therefore I am appealing to people to be careful and ensure the safety of their pets comes first.”
I’m sure newspapers get a kick out of making peoples lives miserable, printing nonsense, not getting facts right. The car belonged to an elderly couple, both in their 70’s, they popped into the supermarket for not even half an hour, the car was parked in the shade and the dogs had been walked and given plenty water before being left, also ALL the windows were open, not just two. There was no need at all to smash the window of the car. The owners of the car are very responsible dog owners, and have owned dogs for more than 50 years. Like I said, the car was not even left for 30mins, as one of the owners is disabled and cant be on their feet for that amount of time. This story has been blown well out of proportion, and has left the elderly couple very upset.
ANY responsible dog owner would not leave dogs in a car at all on a summer`s day.Regardless of whether it is parked in the shade the heat from the engine puts the temperature up.Try sitting in a car yourself with all the windows down 3 inches on a warm day! Then there is the danger of the dogs being stolen.