Dog owners, this might surprise you. Since we deal with temperature a great deal here on WUWT, and since the only canine member of the Union of Concerned Scientists has informed me that he is concerned about this issue, and since we are getting into the hot season here in the northern hemisphere, I thought I’d take a moment to pass on this information as a public service announcement.
From the American Veterinary Medical Association:
Every year, hundreds of pets die from heat exhaustion because they are left in parked vehicles. We’ve heard the excuses: “Oh, it will just be a few minutes while I go into the store,” or “But I cracked the windows…” These excuses don’t amount to much if your pet becomes seriously ill or dies from being left in a vehicle.
The temperature inside your vehicle can rise almost 20º F in just 10 minutes. In 20 minutes, it can rise almost 30º F…and the longer you wait, the higher it goes. At 60 minutes, the temperature in your vehicle can be more than 40 degrees higher than the outside temperature. Even on a 70-degree day, that’s 110 degrees inside your vehicle!
Your vehicle can quickly reach a temperature that puts your pet at risk of serious illness and even death, even on a day that doesn’t seem hot to you. And cracking the windows makes no difference.
Want numbers? An independent study showed that the interior temperature of vehicles parked in outside temperatures ranging from 72 to 96º F rose steadily as time increased. Another study, performed by the Louisiana Office of Public Health, found that the temperatures in a dark sedan as well as a light gray minivan parked on a hot, but partly cloudy day, exceeded 125oF within 20 minutes.
This study also found that cracking the windows had very little effect on the temperature rise inside the vehicle. This is definitely a situation where “love ’em and leave ’em” is a good thing. Please leave your pets at home at home when you can…they’ll be safe and happily waiting for you to come home.
And, mostly importantly NEVER LEAVE CHILDREN IN AN UNATTENDED CAR.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
After moving to Australia and killing a Christmas tree and quite a few VHS tapes in the first couple of months (no kids or pets, thankfully), I wondered about inventing a solar-powered extractor fan to be inserted into the partially-open window. I doubt it would be able to keep the temperature of the steering wheel and gear stick down (I used to have gloves in the car for when I got back in and couldn’thold the wheel!), but it might have been able to keep the air temp down a bit.
I think I saw something similar on a late-night shopping channel once – anyone else see/remember this?
I had one of those here in Florida about 10 years ago. Didn’t do much…might have lowered the interior temp about 5 or 10 degrees but wasn’t noticeable.
LEAVE THE DOG HOME. Dogs don’t need to ride all over the place with you. Even if it’s cool outside, people can and do steal dogs from cars, especially if it’s a purebred or they find the dog irresistibly cute. Same for cats.
Not to mention the PETA idiots who go around ‘freeing’ animals.
i’m sure that stealing my dog is at your own risk and peril (trained police service dog that didn’t got through his last test. a Malinois pure bred but soooooo sweet)
why did he fail? he’s really bad in tracing even a ball hidden behind your back he doesn’t find 🙂 but for my daily sport and movement he’s the best companion i can have and that counts the most.
Found a somewhat related news story. Thousands of cattle deaths in Colorado from the recent snowstorm there. Should have been taken into barns or other shelters.
http://denver.cbslocal.com/2017/05/04/dead-livestock-blizzard/
Most ranchers do not have sufficient barn space to shelter their cattle for once a decade weather events.
Don’t you think if they did they would have saved themselves millions of dollars in losses?
Heat is only one part of threat to dogs in vehicles.
The other two threats are high humidity, and stagnant air that comes with confined spaces.
Stress from anxiety plays a role too.
An FAA study from 1987 shows the exacerbating effects of high humidity.
https://www.faa.gov/data_research/research/med_humanfacs/oamtechreports/1980s/media/AM87-08.pdf
See Table 8 for chart of Temperature vs. Humidity – Danger Zone
Keep in mind, dogs (Beagles) used in test were healthy and better suited for such tests. Thus, other breeds, age of dog, overall health, could drastically increase dog’s susceptibility to all the factors.
From Abstract:
In order to offset the effects of an increase in air temperature (starting at 85 deg. Fahrenheit with a 90% relative humidity), relative humidity would need to be decreased by 4% Rh for every 1 deg. Fahrenheit rise in temperature.