DENVER — A dog died Tuesday after it was left inside a vehicle for several hours at Foothills Golf Course.
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office told Denver7 a bystander saw the dog in distress and broke a window on the vehicle to attempt to rescue the dog, but it had already died.
The sheriff’s office said it responded to the call at around 12:05 p.m. and the vehicle’s owner said he had parked his car around 8:45 a.m.
The owner, who was not identified, returned to his vehicle and was issued a summons for animal cruelty, according to the JeffCo Sheriff’s Department.
There was no other information available.
In 2017, a bill was signed into Colorado law allowing people to break into hot cars to save people and pets from the heat.
The law, which was dubbed the Good Samaritan Bill, prevents people who break into a hot vehicle to rescue a pet or at-risk person from being subject to penalties such as charges of criminal mischief, trespass or tampering.
The law does not apply when the vehicle is a law enforcement vehicle.
- An at-risk person or non-livestock animal has to be in the car, and the Good Samaritan must believe that person or animal is “in imminent danger of death or suffering serious bodily injury.
- The vehicle must be locked.
- The Good Samaritan must make a “reasonable effort” to find the vehicle’s owner and document the vehicle’s characteristics.
- The Good Samaritan must contact a law enforcement, fire, or animal control agency before they enter the vehicle.
- The Good Samaritan must not interfere with the duties or direction of a law enforcement agent or first responder.
- The Good Samaritan can’t use “more force than he or she believes is reasonably necessary.”
- The Good Samaritan must remain with the at-risk person or animal and near the vehicle until law enforcement or first responders arrive.
- If the Good Samaritan can’t stay at the scene until first responders or law enforcement arrive, they have to let the responders know and leave their contact information with the vehicle.
- The law does not apply to livestock, the term of which the law covers: cattle, horses, mules, burros, sheep, poultry, swine, llamas and goats.
All dogs are susceptible to heatstroke and leaving a dog in a vehicle with an open window is still dangerous. The American Veterinarian Medical Association said a parked vehicle with a lightly-opened window heats up at nearly the same rate as a vehicle with windows rolled up.
Even when the outside temperature is in the 70s, the interior of a vehicle can warm to 116 degrees within only an hour, according to the Humane Society.
