New Canaan police on Monday responded to a tip that a dog had been left inside a car in front of New Canaan Library as temperatures outside soared into the 80s.
According to Animal Control Officer Maryann Kleinschmitt, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel was left in a car for 40 minutes during the late morning. The windows were only opened a crack, she said.
Main Street in front of New Canaan Library on May 12, 2014. Credit: Michael Dinan
The dog did not exhibit signs of heat exhaustion—such as becoming non-responsive to rapping in the window—though temps inside the car passed 90 degrees, Kleinschmitt said.
“I threw a thermometer into the car to show the owner when she came back that even though it was 81 outside, it was 92 inside,” Kleinscmitt said.
Though Kleinschmitt herself had been standing by the car for 20 minutes, the owner said the dog had been in there for 40, she said.
The dog appeared to be OK—when it was let out, the spaniel was taken under a tree and given some water.
The insides of cars heat up quickly, especially dark-colored cars. If it’s 85 degrees outside, even with windows slightly open, within in 10 minutes temperatures can climb to 102 degrees, experts say.
A Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Credit: Przemek Jahr/Wikimedia Commons
According to the former Animal Protection Institute, now called Born Free USA, a dog’s normal body temperature is 101 to 102.5 degrees. Dogs can withstand body temperatures up to about 108 degrees for a very short period of time before incurring irreparable brain damage or dying, the nonprofit organization says.
Temperatures in New Canaan reached 83 degrees on Monday, according to the National Weather Service. Two dogs died of exposure to heat in cars in 2012, the last reported cases in New Canaan, Kleinschmitt said. In one of those, a dog had hopped into its owner’s car without the owner knowing, she has said.
In cases where dogs suffer heat exhaustion, owners can be charged with animal cruelty, Kleinschmitt said. Since this dog did not appear to suffer from overexposure to heat, the owner was not cited or arrested, she said.
This just happened out here in the desert. A woman left her pug in her car for over 24 hours, she was arrested and charge with animal creulty
which in Cal is a felony.