A Saint John area company is hoping a video will drive home the message of the dangers of leaving pets in vehicles in the heat.
Renovation company Homestar has produced a video which features three employees sitting in separate vehicles, with various degrees of ventilation, on a hot day.
READ MORE: This is what happens to your dog when you leave it in a hot car
One car has the window half way down, one has the window down two inches, the other has the windows completely closed.
Kevin Ryan had no outside air coming into his car. The temperature in the car quickly topped a startling 50 degrees Celcius.
Ryan says he was shocked at how quickly the temperature rose.
“Sometimes you think it’s okay to run into a store for five or six, seven minutes and and nothing will happen — but it was that period of time that it went from 25 to 60 degrees Celcius,” Ryan said
Homestar owner Mark Hatfield had his window down two inches.
“The two inches that I had, if I put my fingers up to it there was no air flow, but it felt like arctic air on the outside,” Hatfield said.
READ MORE: Owners just aren’t getting the message: Dogs should not be left alone in cars
In putting the video together, Matthew Thompson of Ghost Fire Media was able to watch from the outside as the heat began to take its toll on the men trapped in the hot cars.
“I wasn’t expecting the reactions, especially from Kevin — how quickly it affected him, how quickly he started to suffer some of the symptoms of heat exhaustion.”
Despite the increased awareness of the dangers of children and pets being kept in hot vehicles, incidents continue to happen.
One incident involving an animal being left in a hot vehicle has happened so far this year in Saint John, according to the Saint John SPCA.
“There was a dog that was left in a car and when the car door was opened he collapsed and fell to the ground,” Richardson said. “Luckily we’ve heard that he’s okay and he has recovered.”
Meanwhile, Ryan says he’s learned a valuable lesson, admitting he has left his pet in a vehicle before.
“Now I know I’ll either bring him in with me or leave him at home.”
Homestar came up with the idea for the PSA based on its sponsorship of a dog park in the area.