One woman's mission to combat hot dogs in cars
EUGENE, Ore. -- With the warmer weather hitting the Willamette Valley, dogs are at a greater risk of being left in cars with no way to escape the heat. One Creswell woman has made it her summer mission to warn people about the dangers of leaving a dog in a hot vehicle.
Leaving a dog in a hot car without water is against the law in Eugene. It is considered animal neglect and is punishable by a $250 fine.
However, since law enforcement is streched thin in Creswell one resident has made enforcing this law her business.
Kathy, who prefers to withhold her last name, spends each hot day this summer touring parkinglots and looking for dogs left in hot cars. If she finds a dog trapped in a car she leaves a flier that reads "your dog may be dying". She then notifies stores and businesses nearby to locate an owner.
If Kathy is still unable to find an owner, she calls the City of Eugene's Animal Welfare Office and will even confront the owners when they return to their vehicles.
Kathy said that what she does isn't about getting people in trouble for leaving their pet in their vehicle.
"I do it because it just might save a dog's life someday." Kathy said.
A report from the Animal Protection Institute said that on a warm day the temprature inside a car can climb to more than 102 degrees in less than 15 minutes. That exposure time and heat is enough to kill a canine, the API said.
Eugene's Animal Welfare Office reccomended anyone seeing a dog left in a hot car to take down the license plate number and description of the dog when calling the police dispatch.
Hey has everyone else's tracker been turned off the past couple days?
@OregonOrator yes
I had a great joke about hot dogs until Panzer and Anywho ruined the moment. WTG guys.
I am all for protecting Dogs in hot cars. I take my doggie when I can but not when hot. I however an tired of the people that get carried away with this whole dog in car bit. Laeve your post cards off my window. I went on a drive with family a couple weeks ago and left my dog in the car while having lunch in Cottage Grove. We went out every few minutes to check her, walk her and check the temp. of the car and I still got a post card on my windshield that said I could be killing my dog. No I'm not I made sure every few minutes. If it got too hot I would have stayed and run the air.
 @eugenevoter Was it absolutely necessary to take your dog with you on a summer day..knowing you would stop and get a bite to eat?
This woman is to be commended. Too many people have absolutely no care or concern for their dogs. THEY SHOULD be put in jail for leaving their dogs in a hot car as far as I am concerned.With the budget cuts in Lane County... there is no one to enforce leaving pets in cars.We need more vigilantes... You Go girl!
I have a beagle, and I love that little dog. The problem with Beagles is that they are on a 24 hour qwest for food. My beagle is what I would call slightly overweight, her ribs don't stick out. I walk her almost everyday, she is extremely friendly and loves kids, so we stop all the time so she can pour out her affection for people in general. You know what, I can't count the number of times people have said, "Your dog is a little fat isn't he". It takes all my will power to keep from punching them right in the nose, number 1 she isn't a he, and number 2 it is none of their business that my dogs ribs are not showing. Now I get to my POINT. It is terrible that some people leave an animal locked up in a hot car, but are there not already laws to address this issue, I know there certainly are. People have too much time on their hands, volunteer, go to work, stay out of other peoples business.
Go to the SPCA or PETA, buy one of their Vacuumed dog carcasses, take to your local taxidermist, have dog taxidermied laying on his side with his tougue hanging out, Go online and purchase a life like infant and an appropriate sized car seat, purchase a small kennel. Place kennel in the backseat and cover partially with a blanket, place lifelike infant in carseat with nothing but its nose expose from under a blanket, place taxidermied dog on passenger seat, drive to Eugene,  park car in a high foot traffic area near the front of the store, set your car alarm, roll up windows and lock car, go into the store and wait, when the busybody calls the police and they break out your window, contact your brother in law the attorney, file nuisance suit, settle out of court for 50K, mark Eugene off your list, wait several months and repeat. We have killed 50 million children, the Humane Society admits to kill rates of 60%, PETA admits to kill rates of 95%, we have killed hundreds of millions of dogs and cats. Unattractive obese hypocrits need to waddle over to PETA, The Humane Society, or the SPCA and try an save an animal in their grasps, the dog in the car will be fine, dog owners do not take their dogs with them to kill them, killing is left to loving mothers and animal protection organizations.Â
 @Fancy Jack If your car is in a parking lot you really have no rightful expectation of much privacy. People can peer through the windows if they want to. I really don't know why you'd think such a prank would be amusing, but you have a really strange perception of how our legal system would react to such a stunt. Dogs are not fine in cars when it's hot outside, and neither are children. Both die in hot cars every summer. I don't understand why you think it's one or the other, but people can be concerned about dogs killed in shelters as well as dogs killed in cars. And really, your personal attack on this woman's appearance is completely uncalled for. There is no need to be so rude and disregard the posting rules.Â
@PleaseBeSmart @Fancy Jack I would expect that the same rules for privacy expectation apply to those standing in the parking lot, the human eye cannot trespass. I was not rude, I made several truthful observation and stated them, you are uncomfortable with the truth. I did not attack her personally, you did, I identified a set of descriptive adjectives and YOU assigned those values to her I spoke of a generic stereotype and you assigned the stereotype to her, you violated the rules. It is not one or the other, if we can kill 50 million children, then children have no value, it we can kill hundreds of millions of pets then pets have no value. As for the legal system, I have a great deal of experience in these matters, the trick to settling any suit is to do it for less than the cost of litigation, cheaper to settle than go to court. This is not a prank, it is a first amendment protected act, a protest. How did you miss all this?
@PleaseBeSmart I find it odd that you dismiss her weight, she is not healthy, she has done a poor job of caring for herself,  she puts her own health at risk and yet feels a need to force others to take care of their dogs who face a lesser risk than she does, hypocrisy by any spelling. In the military we teach soldiers to dehumanize their targets to make it easier to pull the trigger, we never shoot fathers or sons or brothers, we refer to the enemy in contemptible terms, the way you did when referring to killing children, all your references would result in a child if left to their own devices. If we can kill children for convenience and we do, then you are not a hero if you save one child and let 50 million die, and you are not a hero if you save a dog who is not at risk, while letting hundreds of millions of pets be killed for convenience. Liberals are blind to the obvious.
 @Fancy Jack I'm not debating the validity of your statement, only that it was rude and uncalled for. Her weight had nothing to do with anything but you still chose to ridicule her for it. If "we" kill X number of something, it has not value? That makes no sense. If many people in this nation contribute to the killing of millions of dogs, that doesn't mean dogs have no value to me. I'm assuming you're talking about abortion with the "children" comment... last I checked those were fetuses, embryos, blastocysts and zygotes. Their value is, again, not dependent on how many have been killed.
@PleaseBeSmart @Fancy Jack I think you need to lighten up a bit, he is only echoing a good share of the rediculousness people in this country have come to. We have taken away personal responsibility, it is always someone else's fault. We make a new law everytime there is a knee jerk reaction to something. People sue everyday in hopes of winning the lottery and retiring because they are too lazy to work. When people have finally had enough of someone else minding their business there will be a revolt. We can only hope it does not lead to an all out civil war.
 @souptonuts I agree with everything you said other than the first sentence.Â
When I saw the headline, my first thought was about her combatting people who eat hot dogs while driving, lol.
"combat hot dogs in cars" Â -- worst title ever
Noble cause.