BOSTON (WHDH) - Animal rights activists demonstrated Thursday the dangers of leaving animals in hot cars.
They demonstrated how fast mercury rises in a hot car in an effort to pass an act that would help rescue crews respond quickily to hot car emergencies.
To dramatize the danger, two advocates hopped in a car in front of the State House, one of them covered head to toe in a dog costume.
The groups are looking for support for the bill, which would allow police or firefighters to break into a hot car before the heat becomes deadly and allow them to ticket dog owners who put their pets in danger.
“So in most cases you can’t even hold the owner accountable? No we can’t,” Mark McCabe, of the Cambridge Animal Commission, said. “And that’s what causes you to hesitate to break the window? That’s what causes the hestitation.”
After 20 minutes, the temperature rose 20 degrees, to about 110 degrees.
That’s when the hot pair got out, hoping they made their point.
“We could start to feel it, dripping with sweat but animals don’t have that advantage,” Laura Hagan, of the MSPCA, said. “They can’t sweat. I have a fake fur on today and it was almost intolerable.”
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