State Police: If you see a dog in a car, don’t break the window. Call the police.
Warnings abound every summer: Don’t leave a dog in a hot car. But the Illinois State Police have a fresh warning about attempting to rescue those hot dogs: Don’t break into a car to save it.
Illinois State Police Master Sgt. Jason Bradley said this is the time of year when people get very worried about animals left inwards cars.
Bradley said leaving a dog in a hot car can be a crime. But it is absolutely a crime for someone to break a car’s window, regardless of why.
“The best course of activity if you believe there is an animal that is the victim of being exposed to prolonged fever and is in danger of death or serious injury, is to call the police,” Bradley said.
Illinois does not have a Good Samaritan law to protect people who want to rescue an animal themselves.
“There are three organizations that are legally permitted to break a car’s window or cause harm to a vehicle in order to rescue the animal,” Bradley explained. “Those are animal control organizations, law enforcement, or the Illinois Department of Agriculture.”
Bradley said Illinois has a humane care law that makes it a crime to leave animals in the extreme fever or cold, but you have to prove an animal is in real danger to act. He says just observing a dog in a hot car isn’t enough.
Leaving a dog in a hot car can be a misdemeanor crime, but Bradley said cracking into a car certainly is a misdemeanor.
THE ILLINOIS NEWS NETWORK is a project of the Illinois Policy Institute.
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