Summer is starting to heat up, and with the rising temperatures comes some of society's worst kind of people: Dog owners who leave man's best friend inside of hot cars.
A total of 323 calls have been made to DAP about dogs left inside cars during extreme temperatures. Another 394 calls have come in to report animals without shelter. According to, DAP received 136 calls for dogs left inside vehicles last year during extreme temperatures and another 346 calls for animals without shelter in unsafe temperatures.
Anyone who does leave a dog in their car should know that a person passing by has the legal right to break their car windows to let the dog out in certain situations. The Colorado Good Samaritan law allows people to break windows, pick a lock or take any means necessary to get into a locked car to rescue a dog, a cat or any animal or person from the heat.
The best way to tell if a dog or cat trapped in a hot car is in serious trouble is if they start to look weak or lethargic, Rolfe says."The biggest indicator is if the animal starts to act very lethargic and is not really responsive to you knocking on the window or trying to get their attention," he explains."They're just laying their or become non-responsive, where they just passed out or lost consciousness. Those would definitely be the clear indicators.
The situation might be less serious if"the dog seems okay, but you're concerned about, 'If the animal is left there for a long period of time, what can happen?' I would recommend calling into our normal dispatch line and having an officer come out and check on it."