dogs in cars

[Who me ?]

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/223225/
animals especially dogs or cats in a hot car

Make it a specific criminal offence to leave a dog, cat or any other living animal in a car especially during hot weather or heatwaves or any other conditions in which the car may become overheated and unbearable for the animal and especially in which may effect the health or be fatal for the animal
Needs a lot more sigs

At 10,000 signatures...

At 10,000 signatures, government will respond to this petition
It's almost halfway.

[ezi]

At 10,000 signatures a government nobody will give a generic deflective response and the world will carry on. These petitions are largely a waste of time regardless of how good the cause.

[Rh14n]

What's the point in creating a new offence? It's already an offence to cause 'Unnecessary suffering'?

[megenzo]

How do you define 'leave' it in the car, how do you define 'hot'? Does 10 minutes on a 30deg day equate to 30 minutes on a 25deg day? Nice idea but the execution of the draft of the legislation would be problematic when as stated, there is a much more general offence to cause distress to an animal. Thats easy to evidence.

[helix402]

As above. A law already exists covering the offence. What about people left in hot cars?

[anonymous-user]

What a waste of time. The lack of specific legislation isn't why this keeps happening, there are constantly local news stories of police smashing windows and people getting prosecuted for it.

There doesn't need to be a specific offence for "breaking into DME123s house and stealing his collection of Gary Glitter tapes" to make that illegal and easy to prosecute for either.

[Mr Tidy]

It is a heinous offence, but creating new legislation doesn't do anything - enforcing it is the issue!

Using a hand-held mobile is a 6 point offence, but speed cameras can't detect that offence.

[Who me ?]

Mr Tidy- I agree. but let's say the law said, leaving an animal in a car where the temperature exceeded 21 or at worst 24 was an offence. No time limit- just that the temperature exceeded a set number.
And then make it an ABSOLUTE offence ,as speeding is. At the moment it's ( from what I see on TV) down to RSPCA etc to make a cruelty case. Then justify ( if needed) breaking in to rescue animal.

[Mr Tidy]

[quote=Who me ?]Mr Tidy- I agree. but let's say the law said, leaving an animal in a car where the temperature exceeded 21 or at worst 24 was an offence. No time limit- just that the temperature exceeded a set number.
And then make it an ABSOLUTE offence ,as speeding is. At the moment it's ( from what I see on TV) down to RSPCA etc to make a cruelty case. Then justify ( if needed) breaking in to rescue animal.
[/quote]

Yes, I'm completely with you on that - especially with the temperatures we are seeing just now!

[zarjaz1991]

We need fewer laws, not more.

[Mr Tidy]

zarjaz1991 said:

We need fewer laws, not more.

Not at all - we just need the current laws to be enforced properly!

[anonymous-user]

Another angle to this...

I bought my daughter a car that had been used to transport a dog (a 3 series cabriolet of all choices) and 6 months later the stench is still present, despite two full valets, a fogging machine and an aircon deodouriser.

I know the UK is full of dog lovers but my god they make a car stink. I'll sign the petition based on that alone

[civicduty]

lord trumpton said:

Another angle to this...

I bought my daughter a car that had been used to transport a dog (a 3 series cabriolet of all choices) and 6 months later the stench is still present, despite two full valets, a fogging machine and an aircon deodouriser.

I know the UK is full of dog lovers but my god they make a car stink. I'll sign the petition based on that alone

If a dog smells that bad then something is wrong with it!

[spookly]

We don't need more laws. Laws don't stop people being morons.
I have two enormous dogs and I leave them in the car sometimes. I park in the shade, I leave all the windows open, and I'm only ever gone a few minutes. I don't worry about security, I don't think anyone is going to bother the dogs.

And let's not get started on the RSPCA.... absolute waste of time that they are. They have no more legal clout than you or I, they just have some official looking uniforms and like to give themselves ranks. They are a private charity.
It's been reported that the RSPCA put down as many as half of the perfectly healthy animals they were meant to rescue and re-home.

[jeremyh1]

Rh14n said:

What's the point in creating a new offence? It's already an offence to cause 'Unnecessary suffering'?

I agree the law covers this well enough The only change that should be made is to make anybody rescuing an animal from a car exempt from prosecution

[Pica-Pica]

Let’s make it a law to have drinking fountains at service stations and public places for humans, and not just bowls of water for dogs.

[Shuvi McTupya]

I assume if this law as passed, police dogs would be exempt.

I am a 'dog lover' and would like to see people getting properly dealt with if they left animals to suffer in awful conditions. I would not want an 'absolute' law that just says you can't leave in animal in a car for a few minutes even after making sure the conditions are not going to be dangerous.

If anything a law like that would make life worse for both animals and their owners as people would just have to leave them at home.

[anonymous-user]

You can’t help stupid. You can prosecute them though.

[Zetec-S]

jeremyh1 said:

Rh14n said:

What's the point in creating a new offence? It's already an offence to cause 'Unnecessary suffering'?

I agree the law covers this well enough The only change that should be made is to make anybody rescuing an animal from a car exempt from prosecution

Disagree with this, it would be too much of a grey area. You'll end up with animal rights nutters putting car windows through left, right and centre because of a 10 minute gap in the clouds in the middle of winter.

[Conscript]

Shuvi McTupya said:

I assume if this law as passed, police dogs would be exempt.

I am a 'dog lover' and would like to see people getting properly dealt with if they left animals to suffer in awful conditions. I would not want an 'absolute' law that just says you can't leave in animal in a car for a few minutes even after making sure the conditions are not going to be dangerous.

If anything a law like that would make life worse for both animals and their owners as people would just have to leave them at home.

This. We occasionally leave our two in the car for short periods if needed, when we are out and about. The whole rear of the car is tinted and the windows left open, the boot is big and comfy with it's own air-con vents, there is always have a self-filling water bowl in there, and we always make sure to park in the shade. As you say, if such a law was passed, we'd probably end up having to leave them at home more often.

Zetec-S said:

Disagree with this, it would be too much of a grey area. You'll end up with animal rights nutters putting car windows through left, right and centre because of a 10 minute gap in the clouds in the middle of winter.

...and this. I've have no qualms with smashing the window of a car to assist a dog which is obviously distressed, but let's not give people a mandate to start bricking windows when the owner has nippped into the shops for 5 minutes while the dog is in the car parked in the shade.