Had an incident with a woman this morning who’d left her dog in a hot car.

[SquashMeDown]

Went to town this morning, when I arrived and parked there was a car nearby with a dog barking and sounding upset.

I went to get a parking ticket and saw that a man was already watching the dog.

The windows were open a tiny bit but there were wind deflectors in the windows so only about a mm of ventilation. It’s a sunny day, and the temperature just over 20°.

The man then left but took a photo of the car.

I hung around for a few minutes wondering what to do. I was just going to get a drink, so took a photo of the outside of the car with its number plate, with the intention of coming straight back and deciding what to do. In all this took about 10 minutes.

As I was leaving a woman came up to me and aggressively told me to delete the photo, that she didn’t give me permission to take the photo. I pointed out I was worried about her dog so had hung around and didn’t want it to be hurt or die. She was so rude and aggressive, claimed she’d only been a couple of minutes (she wasn’t, she was at least 10 minutes). I stood my ground and explained I was just looking out for her dog, but she was so awful - she could have been lovely about it and appreciated that someone was looking out for her poor dog, but no, she was defensive and turned it all round on me.

AIBU for thinking that leaving a dog in a hot car for over 10 minutes is fucking cruel, and she did nothing to help herself by being so angry and rude?
Or should I just have minded my own business?

Yabu to expect someone who leaves dog in hot car to be smiles with you
say nothing just report

Horrible woman and poor dog, she should be reported.

Poor dog and stupid woman.
When will these idiots ever learn ?
You were right and she was totally in the wrong .
I have not long come back from a garden centre which was roasting hot where another idiot had taken 2 dogs one of which was an over weight bulldog ,it was struggling.
Yesterday peak heat of the day on a short car journey i counted 3 dogs out with owners , i think the best you can hope for is that the type of person in your experience thinks about what they did ,realises they are totally at fault and doesn't do it again , won't hold my breath though.

20 degrees is to hot for a dog in a car that is sat in direct sunlight. It might be ok for you but not a dog

advice is always to call the police. https://www.bluecross.org.uk/advice/dog/health-and-injuries/dogs-in-hot-cars

So many dog owners have no idea how to look after a dog. You were totally in the right.
I am also sick of seeing poor dogs being dragged around in intense heat or sitting on a hot beach. Just touching the pavement should give the owner some idea of how painful it is for paw pads.

I mean she came back so there was nothing to report, I would have deleted my photo at that point. There was no need to keep it/

10 minutes at 20 degrees in direct sunlight is still 20 degrees even if it is early morning. The thing is people who find the dogs also don’t know how long the dog has been there. A car heats up very quickly in direct sunlight and doesn’t take long to make a dog unwell or worse

Nothing she could do about it, she can’t make you delete it.
Wasn’t sure which way to vote but I’d have hung around too. Anything could happen, you may intend to ‘pop’ somewhere but something could happen that holds you up.

Because fools on the internet tell people that you can’t leave a dog home for more than 3/4 hrs. Hence why dogs are everywhere now and treated like children carted about all day.

It won’t be for that reason because people on the internet also let dog owners know about the dangers of leaving a dog in a hot car but they never seem to take notice of that so they definitely won’t take notice about leaving them at home.

Do you report all the trucks loaded with sheep going to the slaughterhouse? Do give over with this faux animal care. It's so me me me.

If your choices are "leave your dog alone all day" or "leave them locked in a hot car", you probably shouldn't have a dog to begin with.

I rang the police when I saw this. And they turned up!

Social services for kids aint that great either tbf

Quite right, OP. It's only by her being told that she (hopefully) won't do it again.

Thank goodness for people like you!

I had something similar a few weeks ago in a side street.

I was on the phone to the police while a lady was knocking on doors to find out who owned the car.

I think calling police first is probably the best thing to do. I was lucky I had help.

Owner was found and she was furious police had been called. No gratitude that we had possibly saved her dogs life.

Me too! Whilst it is a good thing to raise awareness of how dangerous high temperatures are for dogs, we are going to far with it if we are saying they shouldn't go out in 20 degrees! (Although I appreciate cars are warmer in than out). It could be the dog was distressed at being left due to separation anxiety rather than through being too hot. Maybe that's why the owner had to bring it with her. She had no right to be so rude though.

“The temperature was just over 20”
What was the temperature exactly? Over 20 could mean many things: 21,23, 25?
20-21 degrees is not that much.

20 degrees outside in the fresh air is very different from the temperature inside a car, though. Like I said upthread, I was out a couple of weeks ago and the outside temperature was 20 degrees - my car said 28 inside.

What if the air con was on before the dog was left in the car for 10 minutes? People never bother to check these things before jumping at someone’s throat. This hero complex culture is not always a good thing.

’Thank goodness for people like you’’

Why? OP didn’t do anything, so I’m not sure ‘thank goodness’ is quite appropriate.

@SquashMeDown
when was this OP?
this is relevant as there was a post on FB and it turned quite nasty. It’s possibly someone I know.

The air con won't keep it cool when the engine is off and it's 20 degrees outside.

It's not having a "hero complex" to point that out

Absolutely NOT ok to leave a dog in the car for any minutes never mind 10 in this heat. She was angry and defensive because she knew she was in the wrong. You were right to take a photo and I think it would be ok to report her and submit the photo. Perhaps she will get a warning.