We all hear the tragic stories every single summer. Pets (and sadly, children) left in hot cars because their owners completely forgot they were taking a ride in the back seat. The bottom line is that leaving a dog in a hot car with the windows rolled up isn’t safe ever, even if it’s just for a couple minutes.
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When a car is turned off and the windows are rolled up, the inside of the vehicle turns into a suffocating hot box. If the temperature is 80 degrees, the interior of a car can jump up to 99 degrees in just ten minutes. A 90-degree day can make the inside of a car shoot up to a blistering 119 degrees in the same amount of time.
Photo Credit: Geograph
Dogs are not able to tolerate this kind of intense heat. Yes, they can pant and the capillaries on their skin open up to cool them down, but it’s simply not enough and they soon start to overheat. When a dog’s body temperature reaches just under 106 degrees, they are at risk of heatstroke, which only half of all dogs survive. If their body temperature heats up to 111.2 degrees, they can experience kidney failure and internal bleeding because of blood circulation. This leads to brain damage and ultimately death.
Photo Credit: Pixabay
This process can happen in as little as six minutes, and even cracking a window won’t help. So you really shouldn’t ever leave a dog in a car that is turned off EVER. Take care of those pooches because I, for one, don’t ever want to see another story of a poor dog left in a hot car that led to tragic consequences.
They’re our best friends, take care of them!
Photo Credit: Pixabay