Sacramento

State Bill Being Considered For Saving Dogs in Hot Vehicles

State lawmakers are considering a bill that would make it legal for a person to smash a vehicle window to rescue a dog that's been locked inside.

Some legislators and animal advocates pushing Assembly Bill 797 in Sacramento even went as far as to demonstrate the potentially deadly effects of sitting in a closed vehicle in the sun by doing it themselves.

"If I see a baby or a dog in a car, and it's hot, I don't even care how long it's been; I will smash the window out," said Kyle Amriault of Campbell. "I would rather pay the owner than lose a life."

Sage Emergency Vet Center says this is the time of year it prepares for a wave of heatstroke cases. Dr. Julie Smith says cracking a window doesn't affect the temperature inside the vehicle at all. It can go up 20 to 40 degrees within about 20 to 60 minutes.

Smith says if a dog has been left in a hot car too long, there's little doctors can do.

"It causes multiple organs to fail," she said. "So the kidneys fail, the liver basically dies, then all the proteins that are responsible for your blood to clot don't work so you start to bleed everywhere."

Some pet owners believe rescuing an animal is just common sense, and a law is unnecessary. Other pet owners, however, believe a law would save animals' lives.

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