A final thought on the Lennox tragedy: Although we are terribly shocked and upset over this debacle, we can only imagine what his poor family is going through. Our hearts go out to them, and we hope that the outpouring of support and kind words they have received over these last horrifying two years will provide some measure of comfort. Please feel free to visit the Save Lennox Facebook page to offer your condolences.
And speaking of doggy deaths (don't you wish we didn't have to?), did you know that as of 2010, 14 states have laws that "prohibit leaving an animal in a confined vehicle if it endangers the animals life"?In fact, if "gross neglect is involved and the pet is injured or dies, it can be a felony." An AP article published in yesterday's Washington Post , discussed the increase in reports of dogs left alone in hot vehicles-in fact, since the official onset of summer, the Los Angeles Police Department's Animal Cruelty Task Force has been swamped with calls from concerned citizens, and five dogs have died from being left in hot cars in Oregon, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
We were shocked to learn from this piece that "temperatures in a car-even on a mild day-can go up 34 degrees in just 30 minutes." Now, Parental Unit is so paranoid about my safety, that she feels guilty waiting the few seconds that it takes her to exit the driver's side and walk around to the passenger side to let me out -no stopping to retrieve packages! So she can't imagine leaving me in the car alone for even a few minutes, regardless of the weather. But what do you think? Do you leave your dog alone in the car in chilly to mild weather while you run errands? Let us know!
