PHOENIX — He’s happily meowing now, but a one-week-old kitten named Swiss has had a rough start to his little life.
“He was found abandoned in a wire crate directly in the sun. As you can imagine, he was overheated. He was dehydrated,” said Kelsey Dickerson, a spokesperson for the Arizona Humane Society.
Swiss is just one of thousands of animals rescued yearly suffering from heat-related illness. The Arizona Humane Society showed ABC15 dogs like Georgio, who was found tied to a seat in a hot car last year. The temperature inside was 112º.
New data from the Arizona Humane Society shows they’ve already responded to more than 1,500 heat-related calls since January of this year. Eighteen of those cases involved animals in hot cars. More than 1,000 of those cases involved animals that were left outside without water.
Heat-related calls in 2024 (January 1-June 8):
- Animal in a hot car – 18
- No shelter – 247
- No water – 1,108
- Tethered – 187
- Tied short – 31
- Total = 1,591
Source: Arizona Humane Society
“The summer months are extremely busy for us,” Dickerson said.
Dickerson showed ABC15 the trauma center where their staff has to quickly save some of those animals in distress.
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Depending on which city you live in, there are different laws regarding whether your dog can be tethered outside. But the humane society recommends never doing that and bringing your pet indoors. At the very least, they want to make sure all pets have access to proper shade and water.
Their message to the public: If you see something, say something.
“We would much rather be alerted to a situation, go there, be able to educate an animal owner, as opposed to not being alerted to it and being too late,” Dickerson said. “We have definitely seen what happens when someone doesn’t let us know or when people aren’t aware of the dangers of tethering, leaving pets out in the heat, and things of that nature.”
If you suspect abuse, call your local police department or the Arizona Humane Society right away. They work with law enforcement when it comes to investigating cases.
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