Urgent: PETA Warns That Dogs May Die in Extreme Heat Wave in Salt Lake City—Vital Tips Here
For Immediate Release:
June 5, 2021
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
This week’s scorching temperatures—reaching the 90s in Salt Lake City—will put dogs at high risk of heat prostration and death, so PETA is issuing an urgent warning to anyone with a dog:
- Touch the pavement to ensure that it won’t burn dogs’ foot pads.
- Be alert to a long, curled-up tongue and heavy panting, as dogs cannot sweat as humans can and heat builds up inside their bodies.
- Walk only in the shade, on earth or grass, and never leave animals outdoors in extreme heat or inside vehicles.
Just last week, PETA fieldworkers discovered the body of a dog who had died after being left chained up in the hot sun, and similar reports nationwide are starting to roll in. Recently, a law-enforcement officer mistakenly left his patrol car with a dog inside it, and the K-9 succumbed to heat prostration and died. Last year, more than 31 dogs were reported dead from heat-related causes. (Figures are far higher, as most go unreported.)
Anyone who leaves animals outside to suffer in severe weather may be prosecuted for cruelty.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.