By Spencer Sterritt

Hot dogs in cars a ‘daily problem’: Nanaimo SPCA

Jun 27, 2017 | 4:41 PM

NANAIMO — Despite constant warnings and awareness campaigns, Nanaimo SPCA says there’s still consistent calls of animals being left in hot cars.

SPCA manager Leon Davis said they receive between two and six calls a day, sometimes more in hotter weather.

“It’s not about people not loving their animals, it’s about not having the knowledge or not believing it’s going to be that bad,” he said. “Usually people feel they’re just going to be popping inside the store for a few minutes to grab something and it’s amazing how fast time can pass, especially if you’re waiting in line for something or you’re browsing.”

Often the thought of animal owners is they’ll only be a few moments, they’ll park in some shade and crack the car windows, Davis said. However, opening a window doesn’t do much if there’s no wind and shade won’t help much either.

“Since we don’t tend to sit in a car with the windows cracked down and the air conditioning off, in this kind of weather ourselves for 10 to 15 minutes, I encourage everyone to maybe just try that,” Davis said. “I’ve done it myself and it’s not pleasant, I can tell you that.”

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On any given day, Davis said the SPCA already has their hands full at the shelter so leaving to deal with pets in cars puts a huge strain on their staff, especially since 80 per cent of the time the car has already left by the time staff arrives. To speed up the process, he said they’ll ask the caller to check nearby stores for the owner and hopefully deal with it without anyone leaving the SPCA or having to call animal control.

So far in 2017, Nanaimo animal control has issued one $500 fine and spoken to 14 people about leaving their animals in hot cars. Thankfully none had to be removed from the car by RCMP.

Davis said the last time he remembered a dog passing away from heat inside a car in Nanaimo was a pitbull roughly two years ago.

spencer@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @spencer_sterritt