A Kamloops woman says she was horrified to find two big dogs left in a hot car yesterday for more than half an hour.

Jasmine Eccleston says this happened at the Canadian Tire parking lot in Aberdeen, during a heat wave in Kamloops, no less. And she noticed it at about 10:45 a.m.

She took down the vehicle’s make, model and license plate, and had management have the owner come outside.

“She just started screaming at me, then went back inside to finish her shopping and then came out with an employee to load her car up. And she did open the door to check on the dog in the back seat. You could just feel, it was 60-70-degree Celsius air that came out. And that poor dog tried to get out, it was panting and just wanting to get out of the heat. And she just pushed it back in and shut the door in its face. And I was absolutely horrified.”

Eccleston says the woman wasn’t done shopping until about 11:15 a.m.

“I was getting really worried, and I said if she’s not out by 11:20 I don’t care what happens, I’m smashing the window and getting the dogs out. I was a trained firefighter and I used to rescue animals back in Alberta. So I know when animals are in distress, and those animals, you could just tell they needed water.”

She also says she didn’t get through to the SPCA and that the City of Kamloops bylaw officers did not respond, nor did the RCMP. But she says police advised her not to smash the car windows because she would be liable for the damage.

“And honestly I think that’s really disgusting. If it was a kid in that car they’d be there within 30 seconds smashing a window. But because it’s two dogs they won’t do anything? I find that appalling.”

She says the dogs were visibly in distress the entire time, with no air conditioning on and the windows fully rolled up.

“They take a lot of heat in, and they can’t get rid of the heat as easy. I guess the takeaway here is just don’t leave your dogs in a car when it’s over 25 degrees for more than five minutes. And if you do, roll the windows down, because then they can at least get some form of fresh air.”

The SPCA has a tip page about dogs in hot cars, which says to call animal control, RCMP or the SPCA Call Centre immediately if a dog is showing signs of heat stroke.

(Photo: Jasmine Eccleston)