A dog wearing a winter jacket was rescued from a hot car in Eugene, Oregon on Saturday afternoon.
The Register Guard reports that police rescued two dogs from a car, and one of them had on a thick jacket . Cassandra Lee Foster, 38, of Springfield was cited for second-degree animal neglect.
Outside temperatures were in excess of 80 degrees when an animal welfare officer and a police officer were called to the 1400 block of Jefferson Street over a dog being locked inside a parked car. At first, the police officer noticed one dog inside the vehicle before seeing a smaller dog crouched down halfway underneath the driver’s seat. It didn’t respond to all of the commotion officers were making outside the car or the barking dog. The animal gradually emerged from under the seat and officers could see that the small dog had on a winter jacket inside the hot car.
Officers were unrelenting in their efforts to contact the vehicle’s registered owner but had no luck.
Police were able to reach inside a window that was cracked open to unlock the vehicle so the dogs could exit out.
When the dogs’ owners returned to the scene, she was cited for animal neglect.
It wasn’t revealed how long the dogs were inside the parked hot car before they were discovered or what condition they were in. It’s also unknown if the dogs were seized from Foster after the incident, which more than likely happened. The news station didn’t release any photos of the two dogs that were trapped inside the vehicle.
This summer, a number of dogs have been left in hot cars. Over the weekend, a dog died after its owner locked the animal in a vehicle in Virginia. According to NBC Washington , Megan Kurtz Campbell, 19, was arrested after she left her puggle locked inside a vehicle parked at a PetSmart in Falls Church.
You Can Legally Smash the Window of a Hot Car to Save a Dog in These States – https://t.co/vYAsvG37Rd @Hezzah @Huma … pic.twitter.com/FrmV08uh9V
— resqme (@resqmeinc) July 21, 2016
A witness spotted the dog in the parked SUV and called for help. Police report that firefighters arrived about 12:20 p.m. and “immediately determined that the dog was in distress.”
Firefighters broke inside the locked SUV and took the dog into the veterinarian’s office inside PetSmart. Unfortunately, the dog died and Campbell was charged with felony animal cruelty.
Another disturbing incident unfolded in Wisconsin when the owners of a dog locked inside a hot car laughed at a Sparta police officer who got injured while trying to rescue the animal. CBS 58 reports that temperatures reached 90 degrees outside in a Walmart parking lot when police had the store make announcements over the intercom for the dog owner to come to their car. When no one arrived within 10 minutes, an officer broke inside to rescue the dog. In the process, he sustained cuts on his hands from the shattered glass. When owners arrived, they were unhappy about the car being tampered with and laughed at the officer, saying, “That’s what you get.”
The dog owners were cited with animal cruelty.
It’s going to be a hot and humid end to the week – make sure never to leave your dog in a hot car! pic.twitter.com/Lnbjpyp1QE
— Ontario Prov Police (@OPP_News) July 22, 2016
As the report highlights, when the temperature is at just 80 degrees, it takes only 10 minutes for a car to reach high temperatures. It can get up to 123 degrees in about an hour.
In Florida, officers are allowed to rescue dogs trapped inside hot cars by breaking into them if the owners aren’t around.
[Photo by Mark Metcalf/Getty Images]
