It's Getting Hot in Here: Leave the Dog at Home

Patch had a chance to sit down with Wilton's longtime Animal Control Officer Robert Napoleon on Tuesday.

This Patch editor, a huge dog-lover who has written about animal rescue,  rescue events, southern dogs for adoption, black dog syndrome, pit bulls, missing dogs, dog fighting and even rescued a few dogs herself, thoroughly enjoyed learning from ACO Napoleon about what types of calls keep him busy.

This is part one in a series, and, as Wednesday, Sept. 11 has a "dog day" weather forecast, Napoleon reminds dog owners: Never leave your dog in the car on a hot day. Even with the windows partly of fully open. 

Pets do not sweat the way people do. They cannot cool their bodies efficiently inhot teperatures. When overheated, pets can go into shock, leading to irreversible organ failure and death. 

ACO Napoleon emphasized that many of the "animal cruelty calls" he responds to are for dogs in hot cars. He always responds to the call accompanied by a Wilton police officer. Why? "Because," he said, "These people do love their pets, but don't understand the danger they're putting them in when they leave them in a hot car."

Napoleon starts to track the time a dog has been in a hot car the moment a call comes through. If he zips up to, say, a store in Wilton Center, five or six minutes may pass before he arrives. It may take a bit longer to travel to Gateway Center, with its treeless asphalt parking lot.  He is sad to say he's responded to multiple calls of dogs in hot cars while their loving owners were shopping inside TJ Maxx.

When Napoleon and an accompanying officer respond to one of these calls, the police officer watches for the owner to return, and Napoleon keeps an eye on the pet and tries to get a temperature reading inside the car.

Tools at hand are a thermometer on the end of a string dropped inside a car's cracked window. He also has a device with a red light he can point inside the car to read the temperature of, say, the leather seat the pet is on. 

Very rarely has Napoleon ever had to break a window to free a pet in a hot car, but it has happened. More often the owner returns to the car and is angry to see police and animal control waiting. 

If you think you will need to leave your pet in a car, even for a few minutes, leave them safely at home instead. They will be happy to see you when you return. 

Wilton Animal Control is located at 238 Danbury Rd in Wilton. Tel. (203) 563-0150.