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Scorching summer days can be dangerous for pets and children left in cars. The hot weather has boosted the number of complaints made to the SPCA about owners leaving their pets in locked cars - with potentially fatal consequences.
Pets can die from heat exhaustion within 15 minutes of being locked in a vehicle.
Shaggy, a beardie cross from Tauranga's SPCA, was used in a demonstration to highlight the potential danger from the summer sun.
After just five minutes in a car - with the boot wide open - the temperature had risen to a stifling 35C.
Shaggy was panting hard and was keen to get back to his bowl of water.
Tauranga SPCA manager Matt Franklin said it was important to remember how dangerously hot it could become inside a car parked in the sun with its windows up.
There had been a few close calls in Tauranga since Mr Franklin started his role at the SPCA 16 months ago, and he had seen a fatal result in Auckland.
"It's pretty awful. They [owners] just don't realise. They park up and go for a walk and it turns into half an hour before they return to the car."
Mr Franklin reminded owners to leave pets at home if they were doing errands.
"It just takes 15 minutes from the time they park the car until the dog is dead."
Children can also suffer if left in hot cars.
Kevin Halday was this week out walking his young toddler at the Gate Pa shops.
Keeping his child cool in the pram with a cotton blanket over the top, Mr Halday said that last weekend he saw a mother leave her two young children in the car alone.
"They had been in there about five minutes already when I saw them. Even with the windows down it was a scorching day."
Plunket's national child safety adviser, Sue Campbell, said that as well as the dehydration risk of leaving children in a vehicle, there was also the chance they could cause mischief and get into trouble.
"They can get into trouble with matches, lighters or letting the brake off."
- BAY OF PLENTY TIMES
