If you live in the Greater Toronto Area you probably saw the news yesterday about the dog left in the car. If not, this is what happened.
Two morons stopped by the Loblaws just off the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto and left a dog in their car. Hours went by before the dog was discovered in obvious distress. Once emergency workers rescued the animal and removed it from the car it panicked, got away and ran up the on-ramp and on to the highway. Things could have ended badly for the poor animal but rather than wander into traffic it collapsed in the shadow of a transport truck whose driver had pulled over to the side of the road. The upside was the dog survived. The downside was the owners were reunited with their dog later in the day when they picked it up from animal services. Stupid people should not be allowed to own animals but there's no law on the books preventing this from happening.
My wife and I met a stupid dog owner last Friday at the Oshawa Centre. Like yesterday the heat was hovering in the 34 degree Celsius range when we encountered a dog locked in a car. The window was cracked less than an inch and the dog was panting like crazy. Heather stayed with the dog while I went back to work. On my way I got her the number for the police because neither of us was sure calling 9-1-1 was the appropriate thing to do. Heather waited 10 minutes and was about to call the police when the owners of the dog returned.
By that time Heather wasn't the only person waiting by the car with the dog in it. But she was the one who let the owners know what she thought of what they'd done. And because it was Heather's favourite day, Profanity Friday, she admitted to calling the guy a 'fucking asshole' more than once.
"There's something to be said about minding your own fucking business," he said to her.
Heather was stunned and responded he should be ashamed. She also mentioned she had his licence plate number and make and model of his car. She then went back to her car and began Tweeting about the incident. The guy then approached Heather and asked her what she was doing? She said it was none of his business and if he didn't leave her alone she'd call the police.
"You just do that bitch," he said.
And so she did.
The cops told Heather she should have called 9-1-1 as soon as she came across the dog. She waited 10 minutes while the dog baked but it could have been in the car for 20 to 30 minutes prior to us arriving on the scene. The officer then asked her if she had the licence plate number of the car. She did.
"We'll make sure this incident is investigated," she was told.
There have been more than 152 incidents in the GTA so far this summer about animals being left in cars. We had an early and warm spring and the summer is shaping up to be a cooker. I hope people get the message and leave their animals at home where they're safe.
For anyone out there who believes they "should mind their own fucking business" when they come across an animal in distress in a car, I urge you to do the opposite. An animal's life may depend on it.
