Dog Discovered in Hot Car

With the outside temperature hovering around 93 degrees at 6:45 p.m. yesterday, Fredericksburg police say that Manassas resident Alexis Cardone, 25, left her dog inside a hot car while she was at the Central Park Wal-Mart. 

Police received two reports from concerned witnesses who told police that the dog was in distress. It took police six minutes to respond, but once on the scene they discovered the dog had been removed from the car by Cardone, but was showing visible signs of heat exhaustion. 

"I wish I could say this was unusual," said Natatia Bledsoe, public information officer for the Fredericksburg Police Department. "Every day we respond to reports of animals left inside vehicles."

Sometimes police respond to find the air conditioner is running, keeping the animals cool. It is legal to leave a pet inside a car if the air conditioner is on. 

"The problem is when you leave them inside a vehicle without any air conditioning," said Bledsoe. 

Cardone was arrested and charged with cruelty to animals. She was released by the officer on her signature to report to court. 

This is the second charge made in the city following the revision of the municipal animal cruelty law. The other incident happened on June 12 at Mary Washington Hospital, where Dale Mickle, 69, of North Carolina left his two dogs inside his vehicle for a couple hours while he was visiting a relative at the hospital.  In that incident, the temperature inside the vehicle was found to be 95 degrees.

Under the revised ordinance,  The law expressly allows animal control officers or police officers to remove animals found in such conditions. The owner is required to pay for any resulting veterinary expenses.

"On a hot or warm and sunny days, the inside of a car heats up very quickly," wrote Fredericksburg Police Chief David Nye in a memo to City Council when the revisions were being considered. "On an 85 degree day, even with the windows slightly opened, the temperature inside a car can reach 102 degrees within 10 minutes and 120 degrees within 30 minutes."

Under those conditions, an animal can quickly develop life threatening heatstroke.