Lambton OPP issue PSA after video of dog left in BMW in Grand Bend goes viral

Lambton OPP are reminding the public about the dangers of leaving pets in hot cars after an incident in Grand Bend over the weekend went viral.

A video of an unknown man smashing the rear window of a BMW to remove a distressed dog has been viewed over 275,000 times on Facebook.

Will Costa took the now-viral video on Saturday evening. He tells AM980 he was in Grand Bend to take in a live concert.

“In between sets the announcer would say that, would try to make everyone aware that there’s a dog locked in a car and for the owner to let the dog out. Time had passed, and you could see that he was getting frustrated because the owner still hadn’t returned to the car. A bunch of people started gathering around the car, contemplating, ‘what do we do?’.”

Costa says no one wanted to damage the vehicle but bystanders became frustrated waiting for the owner or police to arrive.

“Owners weren’t showing up, the cops weren’t showing up. Someone had looked at the parking ticket on the dashboard and it said 5 o’clock on it and at that time it was already 6:30 so potentially the dog could have been in there for already an hour and a half and it was really hot outside.”

Costa says when the owner finally arrived they appeared confused.

“They felt that they did nothing wrong. They felt they did every precaution that they could for the dog to be safe in the car. They had mentioned that they cracked open the window just a slight to let the heat out. Which, I would’ve thought that it’s common knowledge that that’s just not enough. You can’t do that to a dog or a child.”

Police say the owner of the BMW decided he has no concerns about his damaged vehicle in light of the circumstances. The dog was returned to him after an investigation by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and London Humane Society.

The OPP and SPCA are still looking into this incident and say the pedestrian who smashed the window has not yet been identified.