Editor:

I was recently very disturbed to find a small puppy in a locked vehicle in a local parking lot. The windows were cracked and water was available, but with the ambient temperature in the 80s, everything was hot. An employee of the store stated, “It happens all the time.”

The American Veterinary Association states that car temperatures can rise by 20 degrees every 10 minutes.

PETA states: “Parked cars are deathtraps for dogs; On a 78-degree day, the temperature inside a parked car can soar to between 100 and 120 degrees in just minutes, and on a 90-degree day, the interior temperature can reach as high as 160 degrees in less than 10 minutes.”

Please, people, don’t leave your pets in cars during summer weather.

What a tragedy it would be to have a pet suffer and die in such an avoidable situation.

Thank God the above mentioned puppy was hot, but it survived.

Janet Chapman

Rice