While we would love to believe that leaving a car window open a crack will help our dog, it’s been proven to not be enough. When the inside of a car can get up to 125 degrees or more that cracked window is as good as an ice pack thrown into a volcano!
Legal Ways to Help Pets In Hot Cars
The Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF): We interviewed Jeff Pierce, who is Legislative Counsel for the ALDF. For over three decades, the Animal Legal Defense Fund has been fighting to protect the lives and advance the interests of animals through the law. Founded in 1979 by attorneys active in shaping the emerging field of animal law, ALDF has blazed the trail for stronger enforcement of anti-cruelty laws and more humane treatment of animals in every corner of American life.“For example, in California—where the Animal Legal Defense Fund is headquartered—a person who sees a distressed animal in a hot car should call law enforcement, a humane officer, or an animal control officer,” Pierce says. “Fortunately, California law empowers those authorities to break into the car to save a distressed animal. Unfortunately, if a private citizen breaks into the car him or herself, he or she risks being sued by the owner of the vehicle (for damages) or even prosecuted by the police (for vandalism). There are more than a dozen states like California, including Arizona, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and others.”
He says that in two states—New Jersey and West Virginia—although state law makes it explicitly illegal to leave an animal trapped in a hot car, nobody (not even law enforcement) can break into that car without risking getting sued by the owner. Many states fail not merely to empower people to break into cars but also to prohibit people from trapping animals inside hot cars—though we might hope that the animal cruelty code in those states would fill in that legal gap.
The law takes a right turn and changes again in other states. In contrast, a person who comes on the same scene in Florida, Tennessee, or Wisconsin can break into the car to save an animal without worrying the owner might sue them later. These laws are popularly known as “Good Samaritan” laws. Of course, even in these states, the would-be rescuer should be certain to follow certain steps like searching for the owner, calling law enforcement, and leaving a note on the windshield explaining the situation.
At the present time, there is a bill now before the California legislature that would provide civil immunity (a shield against being sued) and even criminal immunity (a shield against prosecution) if the rescuer takes certain steps. New York has a similar bill pending in Albany, and Pennsylvania is considering a bill that would protect a broad class of peace officers and first responders—though not private citizens—from civil liability for rescuing an animal from a hot car.
Go to Blog Paws to find out what you should do if you are not legally allowed to break a car window, what “hot car” laws are, and some pet rescue laws by state.
Right now about 22 states currently have criminal provisions regarding leaving an unattended animal in a parked car. If we’re lucky, more and more laws will be created as the years continue to pass us by.
