You, madam, fail as a human being.

[Amethyst Hunter]

About 4:30 today I was doing my usual grocery store schtick, when one of my fellow cashiers suddenly makes an announcement over the intercom which amounts to the following:

There's a dog inside a parked vehicle. Said vehicle's windows are all shut. Completely. There is no water source inside, either.

Tidbit of the day - on a sunny day, no shelter, a parked car in 80-degree weather with its windows totally shut can easily reach inside temperatures of over a hundred Fahrenheit (or something like that; I forget the exact numbers but rest assured this is a very close guesstimate - science majors, feel free to correct me) in very short time. No surprise here - the poor dog inside the aforementioned vehicle was said to be distressed (I wasn't able to see the situation myself being that I was stuck at register the whole time - the most I saw was the truck (one of those back-cab deals) and one of my coworkers standing beside it) - I think that someone in the store evidently alerted the coworker who made the announcement.

I'm also not sure how, but the back window of the truck's cab was opened and Coworker #2 (the guy who went outside to keep watch over the dog so it didn't jump out and get loose, just in case) hung around. I know that animal control and police were both notified, but never saw any of their vehicles so I'm not sure if they were actually summoned or just complained to. I know that a license plate number was taken.

But the kicker is when the SC finally returned (from another store in our small shopping complex) about ten minutes or so to her vehicle. Coworker #2 (a dog lover, fyi) came back mad as a hornet and told us that she'd gotten really snotty with him when he explained what he was doing there for. He also said that he suspected the poor dog was or had been abused before - he owns a formerly abused dog so he's familiar with the signs an abused animal displays when it's fearful/mistrustful of humans, and he said that this dog was acting like that. As for the SC, she got in her vehicle and took off to parts unknown.

I sincerely hope the bitch gets nailed hard for doing such a stupid stunt. Poor dog.

[CurlyLocks]

That is really nasty. I hope the dog will find a better home.

I actually saw a dog locked inside a car once on a hot summer day at a museum! You know at a museum you're going to be inside for hours so there's no way someone could use the excuse "I was only gone for a few minutes" which is lame anyway. I went back inside and asked the staff to make an announcement but they didn't have a PA system. They said they would walk around through the galleries and try to find the owner so hopefully the dog was saved. (I was with other people so I had to leave and didn't get to see what happened).

[Discourtesy Clerk]

I feel so sorry for that dog. Poor baby, no animal should ever have to rely on such a heartless bitch for their health and welfare. If I saw an animal locked in a hot car with the windows shut, and the owner was nowhere to be found, I wouldn't hesitate to force/break the window open, damage to the car or my job be damned. (And if it was a kid, break glass first, find negligent parent later, with police accompaniment.) There's absolutely no excuse to do that. None. Ever. People like that PISS ME OFF.

At least the wench came back...but did co-worker ever call the SPCA or animal control or anything like that? If you guys had any information on her, they might be able to at least go take a look...

[Shironu-Akaineko]

Dear lord this is a living creature! I get hot in the summer driving my car with all windows down, I'M NOT letting Phantom sit in the car with all the windows up! (Lil spoiled brat has her own car blanky and seatbelt and car-ready waterbowl/bottle).

This is the same breed of SC that lets their kids get hurt on heelies and blames US for bumping into them. You take their dog out of an oven-car and they get mad at you.

Fine.

You know how hard it is to take dead roasted dog smell out of a truck?

Enjoy your family pack of febreeze and your reupholstery kit, ma'am!

[ArenaBoy]

I cannot believe that dumb is even allowed to own a dog. I love animals and there is no way in hell that I am leaving my dog in my car, hot or cold. The SPCA should've been called right then and there. Good lord can you imagine if she had kids? There are just no words for me to express how angry I am at that bitch.

[chainedbarista]

an episode of animal cops, miami showed a clip of a dog that had been shut in a car and died; i was angry, tearing and wanting to kill. unfortunately, the owner had abandoned the vehicle and wasn't caught for their just punishment, preferably, them getting locked in a car with a fur suit, no water and unable to use their hands to get out (or anything else).

what part of oven doesn't seem to fit with them; even on a 'cool' day with overcast skies, the internal temp of a vehicle rises to roasting temp. idiots...

[Chained to the counter]

I CANNOT stand neglectful asshats like that, they should be locked in a boiling hot car with no way out and see how they like it

A year ago a similar situation happened where i noticed a poor little chiuawa (sp) was locked in a car in 40 degree weather, (i'm in Australia, 40 degrees is very hot) every attempt was made to contact the owner, in the end one of my coworkers smashed the window and got the poor little puppy out and it was near death.

Customer came back to a broken car window and proceeded to scream at both of us that we had no right to vandalize her property and she was going to sue blah blah blah.

I told her that the RSPCA had been called and she would be lucky if she ever saw her dog again.

The dog found a new home (with me ) and she was slapped with a whopping big fine, serves her right.


sorry for the thread jack

[Sacknahalf05]

I understand if you're gonna be gone for 10-15 minutes tops, but for God's sake, roll some windows down!

Had something similar happen at my job about two years back. We have a fairly big company (at the time, over 1500 people working in one building), which means a big, unshaded gravel parking lot. Security came thru the call center with a tag number and description looking for someone. Eventually it trickled down that this person had left a puppy in their vehicle with all the windows rolled up (this was about 11am in May in the south!). It's too bad we never did find out who it was, cause there was about 30 of us standing around outside waiting to give this person a serious piece of our minds!

Seriously, the shifts there ranged from 8-12 hours. Who could be so stupid to leave an animal in their car that long?

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

Tidbit of the day - on a sunny day, no shelter, a parked car in 80-degree weather with its windows totally shut can easily reach inside temperatures of over a hundred Fahrenheit (or something like that; I forget the exact numbers but rest assured this is a very close guesstimate

Try temps in excess of 130 for a light colored interior or 145 for a dark one

I sincerely hope the bitch gets nailed hard for doing such a stupid stunt. Poor dog.

You and me both.

On a lighter note, I was witness to a scene where they were trying to save a dog that had passed out in the heat in the back seat of a car. The dog was lying on it's side and had it's tongue hanging out. Police arrived and made the command decision to break the glass and rescue the dog if it was possible.

One shattered window later and it was found that the dog could not be saved.

Before you wonder why this is a lighter note let me explain. The reason the dog couldn't be saved was that it was never in any danger in the first place. It was a stuffed, life-sized toy animal version of Lassie complete with lolling tongue.

The cops were pissed off for having to be called out, the owner wasn't happy thanks to the need for a replacement side window, the 'dog's' owner wasn't happy since they didn't give it back to the little girl until they had filled out all of the paperwork, animal control and the emergency vet wasn't happy for having to schlep out in this heat.

Me? Well I was sitting on the sidewalk waiting for my ride laughing my ass off.

M

[Sailornight6]

i hate this. whats worse for me is my managment refuses to let me do anything about it. so i have started taking a cell phone out to the lot with me when i go out for carts in the hot summer months. i have come to the concluison my managment is useless and if i want to make sure the doggies in the car stay safe i must take care of it myself.
ppl who do that to poor inocent animals should go to you know were

[RecoveringKinkoid]

They can't stop you calling on your own phone.

[Barefootgirl]

Most big supermarkets here have absolutely NO compunction in calling the police and RSPCA if someone has left a dog or other animal, or even a child, shut in a parked car in the summer, and the police are quite happy to smash car windows in such situations. Every summer there are a few stories about precisely this.

[Shironu-Akaineko]

an episode of animal cops, miami showed a clip of a dog that had been shut in a car and died; i was angry, tearing and wanting to kill. unfortunately, the owner had abandoned the vehicle and wasn't caught for their just punishment,

what part of oven doesn't seem to fit with them; even on a 'cool' day with overcast skies, the internal temp of a vehicle rises to roasting temp. idiots...

Two things: A) I saw that episode. I saw the dog, it was a beautiful black lab-type dog. That's a HUGE dog. He was in there for 3 days. I cried for the poor thing and hugged Phantom tight for the rest of the show.

B) There's a story I read once about a woman who would bake cookies in her parked car while she was at work. She noticed how hot her car could get so she made the dough at home and put the baking pans in her car and leave for work. Came back at th end of the day cripsy brown cookies waiting for her.

Putting a poodle in a microwave gives the same result as putting a lab in a closed up car, why can't people see that? Have they never sat in a hot car for a long period of time?

If they didn't want that poor dog anymore why not bring him to a shelter?

[Becks]

I can't believe how careless and ignorant people can be.

Words just can't express how I'm feeling.

[BookstoreEscapee]

A year ago a similar situation happened where i noticed a poor little chiuawa (sp) was locked in a car in 40 degree weather, (i'm in Australia, 40 degrees is very hot) every attempt was made to contact the owner, in the end one of my coworkers smashed the window and got the poor little puppy out and it was near death.

That just makes me sick, especially since chihuahuas are my favorite breed. I have left Pablo in the car exactly once; I met a friend for lunch (she loves him, too), but it was a cool, breezy, rainy day or we would have eaten outside where he could run around; but I knew the car wouldn't get warm or I would have just eaten in the car; we took about 20 minutes to eat, sitting by the window where I could see the car, which had a back window open (so he wouldn't get wet in the front seat but had plenty of air). He just slept but I still worried about him the whole time and kept looking out to check on him.

I've gone into the store and passed cars with dogs barking at me. I remember at least once having the customer paged. One time I saw the person walk back to the car as I was going into the store or I would have had them paged too.