BC SPCA urges pet owners to leave animals at home, not in cars

If you love your pets, please leave them at home and not in your car.

The BC SPCA says that message is out of concern people are going to leave their pets in their vehicles during the coming heat wave.

Coverage of animals in hot cars on Globalnews.ca:

1:51 Outraged passersby find four dogs in a car on a hot day in Vancouver

Spokesperson Lorie Chortyk explained that even just a few minutes can mean life or death.

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“What people don’t realize is that pets can’t get heat out of the body in the same way that humans can,” she said.

“It can take as little as 10 minutes for a pet to die.”

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Chortyk said that the BC SPCA has received approximately 1,000 complaints about animals left in vehicles.

She has urged anyone who sees a pet locked inside a vehicle to call either the police, or the SPCA Cruelty Hotline.

Chortyk added that it’s not just hot vehicles that pet owners have to watch out for.

“If you’re exercising your pet make sure that you’re doing it in the morning or the evening, when the temperatures are little bit cooler,” she said.

Chortyk said dogs can burn their paws on hot pavement.