Help dogs in hot cars

On Monday August 12th at 6:30pm in weather of 85F I was just returning from shopping at Trader Joe's in Hadley, MA to my car at the Trader Joe's parking lot and putting my groceries in the vehicle. At this time, I noticed a dog in a car parked in front of the store who was overheated, agitated, panting and barking--clearly in distress.  Although I did not know it at the time, I had observed the dog's owners shopping in the store more than a half hour before I returned to my own car. Noticing the distressed dog, I immediately returned to the store with the license plate number and description of the vehicle and asked the store manager to communicate with the car's owner/store patron and inform them of the problem. This could have been accomplished by calling them to come to the desk and informing them in person. The management refused to use the loud speaker to communicate with the car's owner. The manager expressed a concern about "shaming" the negligent car's owner, citing a company policy prohibiting her from so doing. The manager went on to say: "it makes other customers uncomfortable--it impacts everyone in the store" and that: "it embarrasses the dog owners". Upon further questioning I was advised that I could call the police to help the dog, but that the people in the store would probably be gone by the police arrived. I told them I would check and see if the car was gone and if it was not I would call the police for assistance in relieving the dog. When I went outside to check on the dog, I saw the owners of the vehicle starting their car and ready to leave the parking lot. It was then I realized they were the same people I had seen shopping inside over the past half hour. I spoke with them about the dangers of leaving a dog in a hot car. While the initial wrong in this case was on the part of the dog's caregivers, I was shocked and dismayed by Trader Joe's- a company prides itself on integrity and progressive values-would be so unwilling to utilize their speaker system to help a suffering animal in their store parking lot.

While refusing to help the poor dog in the parking lot, the manager felt all she could do was offer me the telephone number of a corporate Trader Joe's customer service representative. When I called the customer service representative, I received a lot of corporate double talk and a run around. The customer service representative evaded any sense of corporate responsibility informing me that: "Trader Joe's cannot be responsible for what happens in their parking lot". Shocked, I sharply questioned the ethics of this failure of policy. Animals cannot speak for themselves, and they cannot unlock or exit doors and save themselves from the physical harm being done to them in a hot car. To get an idea of what dogs experience, Dr. Ernie Ward, a veterinarian conducted a experiment by sitting in a hot, parked car with a clock and a thermometer and found that in an outdoor temperature of 95 F, the temperature in the car that he tested had raised to 100 F after only 5 minutes, 106F in 10 minutes and 117 F after 30 minutes. As Ward notes, after only a matter of minutes a dog would be in trouble. These results were obtained with four windows cracked and a breeze outside, Ward found himself feeling lethargic and drenched in sweat-something a dog is unable to do. Dogs are unable to reduce heat through sweating like we are and can only cool themselves by panting, as opposed to the human's ability to release heat through sweat throughout 100% of our body surface. As a progressive company, Trader Joe's needs to inform itself and it's employees of these facts and engage in an enlightened policy regarding animal neglect and abuse on it's premises.