The time I almost got arrested for Animal Cruelty.

By Matt Baumgartner

I was considering never writing about this experience, because I am ashamed of it, but I figure maybe readers can learn something from my mistake.

2 summers ago.  Or maybe it was last summer.  Who knows.   It was a gorgeous, hot weekend and I was up at Burden Lake with my dog Niko.

Around 7pm, I had to leave the lake to go to my friends Sarah and Pete’s double birthday party, and I needed to get them a gift.

I decided to go to buy them classic Ray Ban aviator sunglasses from the sunglass store down the hall from Pottery Barn.  When in doubt for a gift for someone, buy them a pair of classic aviator glasses.  They look good on absolutely everyone.

I drove into the parking lot, parked by Pottery Barn, rolled the windows down and opened the sun roof, and left Niko in the car.   I’m sure you can guess where this was headed.

I didn’t have any water for Niko, and it honestly never even crossed my mind that running into the store for 5-10 minutes would be harmful to my dog.   The windows were down, and he was still wet from the Lake.

I run in.  Buy the sunglasses.  Come out to my car, and Mall Police are surrounding my car with the lights on.   I was like, “Oh shit.  Someone who parked next to me must have just robbed the surprisingly-still-open Travel Agency next to Pottery Barn.”

But I soon realize they are surrounding my car.

I go up to the young man (25ish), and say, “ummm, what’s going on?”

“Is this your dog?”

“Yes.  What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong is that you have your dog in 75 degrees weather in a black car!   Are you crazy?  You could have killed him.”

“Oh wow.  I’m really sorry.  I only ran into the store for a few minutes.  I didn’t think it would be a problem.”

“Didn’t think it would be a problem??  How would you feel if I put you in a  black sweater and kept you in the car on a hot summer day.”

I immediately felt hot.

The “Officer” was giving Niko a cup of water, and I say, “well thank you officer.  I’ll put on the air conditioning now.  Thank you and again, I’m sorry.”

And the officer said, “You aren’t going anywhere.  Animal Control is on their way.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, Animal Control is coming to take the dog.  We just called them. And if it’s determined the the dog has been hurt in any way, you’ll be arrested”.

“What?!?”  The headline “Local Businessman and Friday Puppy dog-blogger Arrested for Animal Cruelty” flashes in front of my eyes.

And then I start to think,  my dog really should get out of the car at this point, or at least turn the air conditioning on.

So I was like, “Sir, you have let me turn on the A/C if you’re going to keep the dog in the car.  Or at least let my dog out of the car!”

And he said, “You can’t touch him.  We have to wait for Animal Control to show up so he can record the temperature of the dog in the car.”

I was like, “does this guy care about the actual safety of my dog at all?  Or this all just a formality.”

I said, “Sir.  That’s insane.  I’m letting my dog out of the car”  and I open the door and Niko jumps out.

The Officer doesn’t stop me, and we wait for Animal Control to show up.

Animal Control shows up, takes a thermometer reading of the car, and decides that the temperature of the car is too hot for the dog.   And he takes my dog and walks him toward the back of his van so that they can bring Niko to a local veterinary hospital to be treated for “heat stroke.”

He takes Niko by the leash, and Niko happily wags his tail and walks with the Animal Control guy to his van.  Niko thinks he’s going for a joyride somewhere.

I follow the van to the Veterinary Hospital in Latham on Rte 7 and the Animal Patrol man walks Niko into the vet, and announces very loudly to the lady behind the counter (and everyone else who is the waiting room), that “this dog was left in a car in 80 degrees weather and needs to be checked for heat stroke.”

Everyone looks at me like I am the worst person ever to be born in the history of the world.

The veterinarian takes the dog into a back room, and I follow them.

She takes Niko’s temperature and decides everything is fine.   She talks to me about the dangers of leaving dogs in the car, and I am grateful that it happened because I didn’t realize that a dog can suffer heat stroke in a hot car in a matter of minutes.

As a result, I never bring Niko (or Frank) with me in the car anytime I know I am going to have to run an errand.   If something happens where they are with me and I HAVE TO make a stop, I leave the A/C running and just assume the car will be stolen and the thief now owns a leased car, and 2 labs who will chew all of his stuff.

I regret my choice that day, however I feel that I have learned a valuable lesson.

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