Loblaw Nabs PETA Award for Signs Reminding Customers That Hot Cars Kill

Grocery and Retail Chain Protects Dogs and Children From Heatstroke by Urging Shoppers Not to Leave ‘Valuables’ in the Car

For Immediate Release:
June 15, 2017

Contact:
Sophia Charchuk 202-483-7382

A Certificate of Appreciation is in the bag from PETA to leading grocery and retail chain Loblaw Companies Limited—which owns Shoppers Drug Mart, Real Canadian Superstore, and Provigo, among others—for signs that the company will be posting this month in its stores’ parking lots across the country reminding customers never to leave children or companion animals in hot cars, where they can quickly die of heatstroke. The signs—which are in French and English and will be in place throughout the summer—warn, “Hot Temperatures Can Be Fatal. Please Check. Do Not Leave Valuables in the Car.”

“Loblaw’s simple signs will no doubt have a profound impact on preventing the tragic deaths of children and dogs in hot cars,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA urges all companies to do their part in protecting the most vulnerable among us from dangerous heatstroke, which can kill in mere minutes.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—notes that on a 25-degree day, the temperature inside a parked car can soar to well over 37 degrees in minutes, even with the windows slightly open. When children are left in a hot vehicle, their body temperature can increase three to five times faster than an adult’s, and because dogs can cool themselves only by sweating through their paw pads and panting, they can suffer from heatstroke in just minutes, resulting in brain damage or death.

Since 1998, there have been over 700 documented cases in which children have died in hot cars in the U.S., and PETA receives numerous reports each year from all over the world about panicked animals who have suffered and died in agony inside vehicles during warm weather.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.