A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
Opinion
I have recently had occasion to witness distressed dogs left in cars on two occasions.
In the first instance on an extremely hot day, the windows hadn’t been left open sufficiently and the car wasn’t in the shade. I guessed that the owner would be in the nearby McDonald’s and
asked the manager to quiz his customers with the car’s registration number. I then informed the police and they promised to immediately investigate. I drove by half an hour later and the owner was sitting in the car, having reversed it into the shade.
On the second occasion, inside a car parked on a city street, a yelping puppy had become so distressed that it struggled out through the narrow gap in the window. I happened to be walking by and managed to catch it as it was about to fall. The owners exited from a shop soon after and retrieved their puppy.
I recently tried out sitting in my car under hot sun in the Pak’nSave car park, with each of the four windows lowered by two inches. After 15 minutes, I couldn’t take it any more.
Could dog owners kindly think twice about leaving their animals in the stifling heat of a car interior at this time of year.
