SOUTHWICK – Animal Control Officer Tracy Root is hoping the Board of Selectmen will move forward on a proposed bylaw protecting animals left in hot vehicles.
Root said instances of animals – dogs in particular – left alone in hot vehicles has increased.
“Last year we had eight dogs in hot cars, this year already we’ve had 14,” said Root.
Root said even well-meaning dog owners don’t realize how quickly the inside of a car can heat up. She cited an incident where the owner thought he did everything right.
“He had two dogs in the car with windows open and bowls of water, but the inside of the car turns into an oven,” she said.
When the owner returned to his vehicle to find the dogs in distress he rushed them to the vet, but both dogs died.
“He was an animal lover, but people don’t know how hot it can get,” said Root. “It could be 70 degrees outside and in 10 minutes it can be 90 inside a car, and we’ve had a lot of 90-plus days this summer, so the inside can be 115 degrees.”
Root proposed a bylaw that includes fines for animal owners who leave their pets inside hot vehicles. Now, she said, there are no local laws concerning such incidents and her only legal recourse is a federal law that holds hefty felony charges.
“Right now, all we do is send them on their way,” said Root.
The slap on the wrist does not have any weight, she said.
“We have no teeth,” she said. “I want to educate them and try to make them think.”
Root said she was reconsidering the written warning for the first offense and going right for a fine.
Selectmen Arthur Pinell and Russell Fox said they prefer to keep the warning intact and make sure there is an educational piece to the puzzle.
“When people come before us with a request for a new regulation, we ask if there will be an educational component,” said Pinell.
Root assured the board she intends to educate the public and said now she hands out cards containing important information on the effects of heat on a dog when she responds to an incident.
“The folks at Dakin would love to come talk to people,” she added.
Selectwoman Tracy Cesan said the proposal had her full support. Pinell asked Root if she could work the new bylaw into a paragraph of the town’s existing bylaw on animal safety and include an incremental fine schedule.
“This way it becomes an amendment rather than a new bylaw,” said Chief Administrative Officer Karl Stinehart.
The bylaw – or an amendment to a bylaw – must be approved at Town Meeting. Pinell said this measure would not be included in the fall meeting but he would like Root to work on the language for the spring.
Root said she was happy to do that.
“I’m not trying to beat people up . . . I’m trying to wake them up,” she said.
