Dog, car, WTF?

[VenomX]

Theres a customer I hate. He got mad I wouldn't take his unwrapped pennies and called my boss on me. He told my boss there was only 20 but I know there was more.

I was outside working the gas pumps and he parked by them and walked up behind me and squeezed my side. I told him not to do that. He said he was just saying hi. I told him Not to touch me again. He repeated he was just saying hi. I told him if he touched me again he would see what happened. Like I said I hate him, but I stuck up for him right after I warned him not to touch me today.

An older lady(Crazy Lady) pulls up right beside him to get gas. Heres what went down....

Me: How much can I get you?
CL: Who owns that car!? *Pointing at his car*
Me: He went inside to get a pack of cigarettes. He will be right back out.
CL: NO! YOU GET HIM OUT HERE NOW! I AM GOING TO CALL THE HUMANE SOCIETY!
Me: For what?
CL: HE HAS A DOG LOCKED IN HIS CAR!
Me: Its 70 to 75 out here, his windows are down an inch, and theres a nice breeze...
CL: I AM CALLING THE HUMANE SOCIETY!
Me: He just went in and its not busy he will be right back out.
CL: I AM CALLIN.....
Me: *cutting her off* I don't need this sh*t, go up the f*cking road and pump your own gas!

I walked off to the truck behind her and start their gas pumping.
I see him walking back towards me and his car. I tell him what she said and she jumps out of her car and starts yelling at him. He tells her all 4 windows are down about an inch and he was gone for a minute or so. She starts yelling about the humane society and he tells her to f*ck off and he gets in his car, she gets into hers and they both leave.

Now WTF? I could understand if it was really hot and humid and he was going into somewhere that could take forever before he got back out. But he was only going in and getting a pack of smokes, he had all the windows down a bit and it was not hot outside.

I bet if it was a little kid she wouldn't have said a word. Yes I see that alot where I work, mom leaves kids in the car to run in to get her smokes... Noone says a word, not even the police when they are coming into the store at the same time.

I hope she doesn't come to the store in the mornings... one older guy comes in to get his paper and 2 packs of smokes every morning. He stands around for a little while to BS with the employees and other customers. Guess whats in his car... TWO big a$$ dogs that are older than dirt. Oh and lets not forget the other morning regular, his dog stands in the bed of his truck...

[Polenicus]

It's all about common sense. People simply don't have it.

People WITH common sense will see news stories on TV or the newspaper about pets or people who die or become seriously distressed by being locked in cars and left. They will then proceed to parse the important details of the story: Windows rolled up. Hot, sunny day. Left for hours. Therefore, a person or pet locked in a car on a sunny, hot day, with the windows rolled up and left there for a long period of time is a very bad thing, with the severity dropping as you remove each of those factors.

People WITHOUT common sense will see news stories on TV or the newspaper about pets or people who die or become seriously distressed by being locked in cars and left. They will proceed to parse ONE detail about the story: Person or pet locked in car. Therefore, a person or pet locked in a car is a very bad thing, PERIOD. They don't bother to try and understand all the factors involved, and boil things down to the simplest possible equation.

Now, add to that someone being a busybody, and you've got a winning formula for suck!

[Snowbird]

I was yelled at for having a dog in a car when I wasn't in it once as well. The kicker to the story is that I was standing right next to it, getting out the bottle of water for my dog when they started yelling!

People yell and scream about such minor things and forget to speak up about the big picture when it matters. It makes me sad.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

I'm also willing to be that your gas station has the roof over the pumps so people can pump in the rain and not get soaked...meaning that the dog is in...

• An environment that is temperate and neither extremely hot nor extremely cold
• A car with all windows opened enough to let in the breeze
• A car wherein the owner will be back in 5 minutes on average
• In the FREAKING SHADE

Some people are just...just beyond comprehension

M

[Saydrah]

Actually, I hate to be the voice of dissent here, but in 75 degree weather, the temperature inside a parked car even with windows cracked can escalate to over 120 degrees Fahrenheit in under 15 minutes. Dogs can also suffer from heat stroke in under 15 minutes. By the way, leaving the car running with the A/C on can cause carbon monoxide poisoning, especially if the car is older or has mechanical problems that cause it to allow exhaust into the cooling system (my car has a problem like that right now).

She was definitely sucky to scream at you and to involve the authorities. However, you would not have been out of place to calm the crazy lady down by telling her you would make sure that he completed his business and returned to his car immediately, and then, had he lingered, telling him to finish his transaction and return to his dog in the car.

The suck here is in that she didn't make any attempt to resolve her complaint with the other customer herself, and that she wanted to call the Humane Society rather than be a normal human being and walk up to the other customer and say, "Pardon me, but I noticed your dog is in your car. Will you be finished here soon? If not, I'd be glad to hold the dog for a few minutes so he doesn't have to sit in the parked car. Did you know a parked car can reach 120 degrees inside, even if it's just 70 degrees outside?" But it's not sucky that she was concerned for the dog-- many dogs every year die of heat stroke because somebody thought, "Oh, it's only 75, he'll be fine."

[Emrld]

I have a convertable . . .had the top down with the window up . . .dog was in her car seat with her harness / seatbelt on. I was returning a DVD to the store. I park at a space in front of the store. Turn the car off . . .get out . . .walk up to store . . .drop in movie . .hear someone yelling at me.
I turn to look. This person is all upset that I left my dog in the car . . .it could get sick . . .it could overheat and die. . .dog could jump out and get hurt . . . someone could steal it . . .blah blah blah.
I calmly walk back to my car. I look at the temp that is shown on bank sign . . .a nice 78 degrees. I look at the spewing thing, I look in their car. They have a small dog laying in the back window area. I look at my secured dog. I laughed, got in my car, started it up and drove away.
(seriously what should I have done. My dog was secure, I wasn't ever really gone, car off for less than 1.5 minutes the top was open/ car not sealed window up dog couldn't jump- nor would she. Vs woman who left her car running which will get you a ticket where I live (must have an adult in drivers seat if car is running) dog not secured, not sure if it could even get air all the way back in the window.)

[Mr Yuck]

Actually, I hate to be the voice of dissent here, but in 75 degree weather, the temperature inside a parked car even with windows cracked can escalate to over 120 degrees Fahrenheit in under 15 minutes. Dogs can also suffer from heat stroke in under 15 minutes. By the way, leaving the car running with the A/C on can cause carbon monoxide poisoning, especially if the car is older or has mechanical problems that cause it to allow exhaust into the cooling system (my car has a problem like that right now).

She was definitely sucky to scream at you and to involve the authorities. However, you would not have been out of place to calm the crazy lady down by telling her you would make sure that he completed his business and returned to his car immediately, and then, had he lingered, telling him to finish his transaction and return to his dog in the car.

The suck here is in that she didn't make any attempt to resolve her complaint with the other customer herself, and that she wanted to call the Humane Society rather than be a normal human being and walk up to the other customer and say, "Pardon me, but I noticed your dog is in your car. Will you be finished here soon? If not, I'd be glad to hold the dog for a few minutes so he doesn't have to sit in the parked car. Did you know a parked car can reach 120 degrees inside, even if it's just 70 degrees outside?" But it's not sucky that she was concerned for the dog-- many dogs every year die of heat stroke because somebody thought, "Oh, it's only 75, he'll be fine."

Not to be too nit-picky.....I am a dog-lover, and I simply don't take him with me when it's hot out, but the temperature's you claim are a little off.

A car's temperature at 75 degrees will rise approx. 40-50% over the period of an hour if left in the sun. That equates to about 102-110 degrees after one hour. Now you will get a large amount of that increase in the 15-30 minute range, but generally not the numbers you claim in the first 15 minutes. So going in and paying for his gas should not harm his pooch.

[Gravekeeper]

Per Stanford University's study: On a sunny day between 70-90 degrees a car interior will heat up an average of 40 degrees over the course of an hour. Parking in the shade and/or cracking the windows a bit really only offsets this by a 1-3 degrees and has no effect on the eventual max temperature. 80% of this increase occurs in the first half hour.

So yes it *is* potentially dangerous but its not going to hit 120 in under 15 minutes.

PS. I hate you both for making me do math.

[Mr Yuck]

Per Stanford University's study: On a sunny day between 70-90 degrees a car interior will heat up an average of 40 degrees over the course of an hour. Parking in the shade and/or cracking the windows a bit really only offsets this by a 1-3 degrees and has no effect on the eventual max temperature. 80% of this increase occurs in the first half hour.

So yes it *is* potentially dangerous but its not going to hit 120 in under 15 minutes.

PS. I hate you both for making me do math.

That's why all my numbers were approximation's
I knew the numbers and percentage's but was too lazy to do the actual math.

[Saydrah]

Hmm, just quoting from a news item I found in the online edition of my hometown paper; perhaps theirs were off, but it's still a bad idea to bring the dog if you're going somewhere that doesn't allow dogs and the temperature is above 60 or so. Better safe than sorry (and possibly arrested for animal cruelty).

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Check it out, friends. With outside temps as low as 75 degrees, the inside of a car can reach 100 degrees in half an hour.

The lady was right to be upset. Although instead of yelling at the OP, she should have just called the cops. I understand why one might think 75 degrees is a safe temp, but it’s not. (I wasn’t sure, either, so I did a quick search.)

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...5/ai_n27923911

http://www.themonitor.com/onset?id=3...e=article.html

http://www.lex-co.com/Documents/2006...a%20Minute.pdf

http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2...08/089355.html

[Pagan]

I have to agree with Polenicus. I love dogs, animals in general, to the point where I really shouldn't watch "Animal Cops". BUT, as VenomX stated, the guy was gone way less than 5 minutes. There's no possible way, with the description of where the car was, that the temp would go up that fast in a couple of minutes. Believe you me, I know how hot it can get in a car, we routinely go over 100F in the summer here.

And seriously, how many people park and hang out at a gas station long enough for that to happen?

[Saydrah]

Plenty, if you believe the stories we see here about people hanging out at gas stations all day doing bizarre things like begging for smokes or harrassing other shoppers...

[Chromatix]

My parents have kept a couple of dogs - not tiny or huge ones - so we know how to keep them safe in the car. Being British and not exactly rich, our cars have also universally lacked air conditioning.

So we park in the shade, open the windows slightly, and leave a bowl of water. It works just fine.

[AdminAssistant]

Why not just leave the dog at home? I've never understood this strange obsession people have with dragging their animals around wherever they go. Leave the doggy at home while you run errands, then take the doggy for a nice long walk/run when you get home.