Is it legal to break a window in Charlotte to save a dog from a hot car?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Vehicle interiors can heat about 20°F in 10 minutes and ~30°F in 20 minutes.
- Call 911 if a dog in a car appears to be in apparent medical distress.
- Animal Care and Control will answer nonurgent calls within 30 minutes.
Cars heat up rapidly, and leaving people or pets in cars in the heat poses a severe risk to their health.
Temperature fluctuations pose a risk to dogs in cars even in the shade or for short periods, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association.
The temperature inside a vehicle can rise about 20 degrees in 10 minutes, and almost 30 degrees in 20 minutes. At the one-hour mark, a vehicle’s interior temperature can be more than 40 degrees higher than the outside temperature.
Cracking a window doesn’t improve the temperature issue, as surfaces heat and convection begins.
Short-muzzle breeds like pugs and bull dogs are at higher risk of heat stroke, as are older dogs, overweight dogs and dogs with medical conditions, according to Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine.
Charlotte has already experienced triple-digit heat indexes this summer.
Canine heat stroke can present with:
- Heavy panting
- Drooling
- Vomiting
- Diarrhea
- Weakness
- Collapse
Between 75 and 90 calls were placed about animals and heat between April 1 and June 12, according to Public Information Officer Melissa Knicely of Charlotte Mecklenburg Animal Care and Control. The majority involved cars.
So what can you do if you come across a dog in a hot car?
You cannot break into someone else’s vehicle to attempt to save an animal, though Knicely said people still do.
“People care a lot about animals, and sometimes they care more about getting that animal to safety than they do about getting charged with something,” Knicely said.
Someone could be charged or sued for breaking into a car, Knicely said, even if the dog is in distress.
“What we always tell people is to look at the animal. If the animal is in distress, then it’s a call to 911. They can either dispatch police or fire to come out to be able to gain entrance into the car,” Knicely said. “They have the ability to get there quicker than we do, and so that’s why we always say call them if the animal is in apparent distress.”
911 will also dispatch Animal Care and Control. If someone sees a dog in a hot car that is not in immediate medical distress they can call Animal Care and Control directly and someone will answer within 30 minutes.
If the car is outside a business, someone could also take the license plate to customer service and have someone call for the owner.
“That’s whether you want to take it on, because at that point you know it’s going to be you and the person, so that also can create a problem too,” Knicely said. “I always think it’s best to let authorities handle these matters. There’s a lot of members of the public that think it’s best that they handle these matters, so we can’t govern what they decide to do.”
