We have cars that can park themselves. We have cars that can drive themselves. We have cars that can talk to other cars. Forbes predicts that by 2020, we'll have biometric access (unlock your vehicle with your fingerprint) and active health monitoring (cars that can tell when you're about to have a heart attack). It seems like there's nothing our cars won't do for us.
You'd think, with all this progress, we could develop a technology that would prevent idiots from leaving dogs locked in automobiles during heat waves. It takes around 20 minutes for a car to climb from 35 to 40 C.
Already this summer, police in Halifax have rescued eight pooches from cars that had been left for hours in blistering heat. In Grand Bend, Ont., one good Samaritan used a rock to smash the window of a BMW to save a dog that had been left sweltering in 30 C heat. In the United States, there are too many cases to mention.
It's hard to put oneself in the mindset of a person who leaves a pet – or heaven forbid, a child – locked in a car that can get so hot you could bake cookies in it. Still, folks do it – despite the fact there are so many "clues" to indicate that this is not a good idea.
Clues it's too hot to leave a dog in a car:
- The heat. That burning you feel when you walk to the car? That’s the sun. Its surface temperature is 15 million degrees Celsius.
- It’s even hotter in the car. Notice how the seat burns. Ouch.
- Air conditioning makes the car cool, but don’t be deceived – it’s still insanely hot outside. The sun is still working.
- From behind the locked door, your dog gives you a look that says: “Why are you trying to kill me?”
I suppose the thinking behind any decision to leave a dog locked in 40 C heat is that whatever you're abandoning the animal to do will be "quick." Like all ideas that sound promising, it's flawed. It's the same kind of thinking that says you'll "only have a few potato chips." Ask yourself, when was the last time that a trip you expected to be quick actually turned out to be?
Never.
For instance, if you think you're going to return those jeans and be in and out in 20 minutes, you're delusional. There's sure to be some nut in line ahead of you with a fist-full of worn-out coupons and time to kill, and the guy before him has waited all week to come in to have a debate about the injustice of "Bay Days." In reality, only trips that you expect to take forever occasionally go quickly.
Perhaps auto makers could develop a system that scans locked vehicles for life forms. When one is located, and the driver refuses to free it, we could use remote Tasers to encourage them. We could consider affixing dog owners with collars that are electronically synced with their pets. When an owner leaves a canine alone in a car that's so hot it could be used to make traditional Neapolitan oven-baked pizza, his collar would heat to the same temperature as the interior of his automobile and the dog would automatically get a drink of water.
In the short term, we could use something old-timers call "our memory." Before iPhones and iPads and handhelds and laptops, we used "memory" to prompt us to do things. In the case of a dog in a car, the memory would work like this:
You exit your car and lock it.
You pause.
You ask yourself: "Is there a dog in my car?"
Your "memory" will tell you, "Yes."
It's at this point that you unlock the car and take the dog with you.
It's a bit dated, but memory has served people well for centuries, and I'm sure we can rely on it until the technocrats have created a better version.
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Andrew Clark