Is It Illegal to Leave Your Pet in Your Car in Texarkana? Yes & No

As temperatures start climbing for the summer months the Texarkana Texas Police have issued a reminder about leaving your pet inside a vehicle. Did you know that it is illegal in Texarkana to leave a pet in your car unattended in the warmer months?

How Long is Too Long

It's true. You can not leave your pet in a vehicle for more than five minutes if the temperature outside is 80 degrees or above. Temperatures inside a parked car rise to dangerous levels in a matter of minutes. According goodcalculators.com if the outside temperature is 85 degrees the inside of your vehicle will be almost 115 degrees in 20 minutes. Our kind of hot as in 95 degrees the heat would reach 124 degrees in just 20 minutes. Do not leave your pet or child in a vehicle! This can cause heatstroke and even death and it doesn't matter if the windows are cracked or not.

What Should You Do When You See a Pet in a Parked Car?

The TTPD issued this reminder on their Facebook page and have also explained what to do if you see a pet left in a car on a hot day:

If they appear to be in some type of distress, call 911 and we will send someone right out. While your waiting on us to get there, you might try to locate the owner (maybe have them paged inside the business). Something drastic, like breaking out the car window, should only be done in the most extreme situations where you believe the animal might die if you don't do something now. In 99.99 percent of the cases, the best thing to do is to let us get there and handle it.

 

Our pets rely on us to keep them safe and healthy so please be a responsible pet owner this summer. Otherwise, I'll make you wear a wool coat with a hat and gloves and sit in your car for 20 minutes in July or August and see how you feel.

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