Dog Dies In Hot Car In NW Colorado

DENVER, CO — A dog died after being left in a hot car in northwestern Colorado when temperatures were in the 80s, the Rifle Police Department said. The dog's owner told police she left the car running with the air conditioner on, and came back to the vehicle to find the engine off.

In a warning issued to dog owners on social media, the police department said that Garfield County Emergency Communications received a call from a woman who was crying.

"There is a dog locked in a car, she said, the dog… the dog is not alive,” the Rifle Police Department wrote.

The woman told police that she went to visit someone after leaving the car running and lost track of time, returning an hour and 45 minutes later to find that the motor was no longer running and the dog had died. The woman could face a misdemeanor charge for unintentional neglect. Police were investigating why the vehicle, which was new, turned off.

The Rifle Police Department is urging people to leave their pets at home.

“Every year hundreds of pets (and, on average, 38 children!) die from heat exhaustion because they are left in a hot car," the department wrote in its social media alert. "It’s a horrible way to die. And it’s easily preventable.”

The department urged owners to always drop their dogs off before heading to the store.

"While we’d like to think we can get groceries or run an errand in just 5 minutes, the reality is that it often takes much longer," the department said. "Dogs can only tolerate higher temperatures for short lengths of time, much shorter than adult humans can tolerate."

A dog’s normal temperature is between 101 and 102.5 degrees, the department said. When a dog’s temperature reaches 105.8 degrees, permanent brain damage begins to occur.

The department also sought to debunk common myths:

• LEAVING THE CAR WINDOWS OPEN does not keep the vehicle from heating up. Research has shown that even with the windows rolled all the way down, the vehicle will reach the same temperature as those with the windows closed. o The greenhouse effect is the main cause for heating up a car. Car windows let the shorter waves of solar energy pass through, getting absorbed and heating up the car’s interior. When the surfaces of the car’s interior heat up, they produce long-wave infrared radiation. The same glass that allows short waves of solar energy to enter now traps the long waves (heat) inside the car – and the car’s interior temperature rises rapidly in a very short time.

• PARKING IN THE SHADE helps but is not the solution. A car parked in the shade can still turn into an oven. As the minutes pass and the earth rotates, a vehicle parked in the shade can quickly become parked in full sun.

• LEAVING WATER FOR YOUR DOG may help keep the dog hydrated but will not prevent heat exhaustion. As we discovered above, vehicles heat up too fast and a dog’s ability to cool itself just can’t keep up.

• LEAVING THE AIR CONDITIONING RUNNING does not guarantee your dog’s safety. Vehicles may overheat and stall when the engine gets too hot. Newer cars are designed to shut down before this happens (EPA regulations). When the motor shuts down, the air conditioner stops working or may even start blowing hot air.

Related:

Trussville PD Rescues Dog From Hot Car