Hot Under the Collar
(File photo by CoastView)
...Parts of North America are currently experiencing high temperatures, and that usually lends itself to public service announcements about making sure that you don’t leave your pets in your car if you go shopping. The heat can reach well over 100 degrees and subsequently kill the animal.
...Recent news stories show us that times are changing, however, so I figured that I should offer this public service announcement and say, “With the onset of summer’s oppressive temperatures, please do not keep your pet or family members in your car for extended periods of time, as the interior temperature can reach in excess of 100 degrees and lead to death.”
...Thank you.
8 Comments:
I don’t want to sound holier-than-thou, but I’m completely confused with regard to the North Dakota and Pennsylvania incidents. The former was a “tragic accident” and the latter a “miscommunication.”
The Toronto incident wasn’t fatal—thankfully—but the most disturbing thing in the story was the daughter’s reaction after her 97-year-old mother was rescued from the heat. She was angry because other shoppers “didn’t mind their business.”
I’m willing to bet that she wouldn’t take that position if she were the one in need of help from passersby who might otherwise “mind their business.”
As for the Britain story, I saw that when the headline from the Daily Mail caught my eye. I’m not sure if the NPR report was similar, but it seems as if a lot of the Brits are bringing it upon themselves because they’re putting their desire for more money above a few extra minutes with their kids. (Not that Americans don’t do it, too. I know a few of them.)
One of the readers’ comments suggested that, too: “So whilst this makes somewhat depressing reading, we should always remember that we all have the power to change our life choices—nobody is forcing us to work to pay for the lifestyle that we choose. We could choose less outgoings.”
First off, not all women like to shop for shoes. So there.
Secondly, I remember a case in Virginia a few years ago when I was living there where a father of 10+ kids (there were 11 I think, maybe, or more), and he left the youngest in the minivan to die in triple digit heat when he was responsible for driving all the kids around to their various summer pasttimes one day. He claimed he wasn't used to having to take all of the kids everywhere they needed to be, that it wasn't a routine task for him, etc. But how on earth you remember to take in the groceries, and 3 older children but completely forget the baby in the carseat is beyond me. He even went as far - in one of his statements - to say that his 17 year old daughter had been responsible for looking after the infant that day. Either way though, the onus of responsibility should've been on him, and how he maliciously left his youngest child to die a horrible death in the family's van.
Cases like this tear at my core, and honestly make me wonder where the heads of these parents are. It's bad enough I see parents yelling at their children to 'shut up' while walking through a grocery or department store. It's worse when they're so busy on their cell phone that they don't even notice that their child is wandering away into the fearful gaze of a predator. But when a parent fails to 'remember' that a child has been left in a locked vehicle in sweltering heat, I really start to wonder about mandatory licensure for parents. Now, I'm not a parent, but I've seen enough crappy parenting to wonder why more isn't done to prevent such needless deaths.
Great post, JP.
The Wagonqueen Family Truckster.
JP, consider me the ideal goddess then. I.hate.shoe.shopping. I come by it honestly that I'm one of those hillbillies who'd rather go around barefoot (but not pregnant, I draw the line at pregnant).
I think the family had two vehicles and his responsibility was to drive around 7+ kids that day to various activities. The mother was home with the rest of the kids, I believe (I'm searching for a few online reports of the incident back in 2002.).
"And in Virginia, a father of 13 is facing charges for leaving his 21-month-old daughter inside a locked van." - From a July 3, 2002 report on CNN
So I was wrong. It was actually THIRTEEN children. Still, they're left with just 12.
Oh, one more thing. I remember clearly that the community was divided over whether this father should be punished for his act of leaving the baby behind to die in the van. I know though, if it had been the mother that had forgotten she would've been burned at the stake (pun intended). There were plenty of people giving this guy a pass because he was the dad and it wasn't his "routine" to take the kids around. Puh-leaze.
Just for the record, Legally Insane was the one with the ideal goddess remark, even though I like the idea of in-and-out shopping, too—for everything.
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