Get a lawyer for animal abuse ticket?

[Anonymous]

Yes, they should get a lawyer.

[Anonymous]

There are a lot of incorrect assumptions made on this post:

1) If it's 85 degrees outside, then it is much hotter in the car. Even if the car is in the shade with the windows completely open, it could be over 100 degrees in the car.

2) I'm sure the cop took 40 minutes because he was getting a background check on an out-of-state license. That can be surprisingly time consuming.

OP, your parents should get a lawyer to help them negotiate the inaccuracies in the police report and to make sure someone doesn't wind up with a jail sentence. This is not traffic court.

[Anonymous]

OP here- a few people have said to just pay the fine and be done with it. There wasn't a fine (yet). I'm looking for advice. I believe the fine will be about 1k, but of course there could be more (I read about jail time associated with this law, but I think that's for worse offenses). If the police had fined my parents they would have just paid. This is a court appearance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They may love their dog, but they did a dumb thing. The dog could have died. After their criminal charges are handled, please educate them.


https://veterinaryclinic.com/img/cartemp-safety.pdf

This talks about shade: https://www.google.com/amp/s/patch.com/connecticut/stamford/amp/1854130/how-hot-is-too-hot-for-a-dog-in-the-car-this-hot-39

+1

I'm sure your parents are lovely people but what they did does deserve a ticket.

[Anonymous]

If they have to go to court, they should get a lawyer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here- a few people have said to just pay the fine and be done with it. There wasn't a fine (yet). I'm looking for advice. I believe the fine will be about 1k, but of course there could be more (I read about jail time associated with this law, but I think that's for worse offenses). If the police had fined my parents they would have just paid. This is a court appearance.

They might be able to get a public defender if they ask. They should definitely call a couple lawyers in Ohio to get some advice, even if the lawyer doesn't come to court with them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Windows down in the shade makes all the difference.

It'll be dismissed outright, or they'll be found not guilty.

I agree. Did the officer have a thermometer on him? Did the officer have them turn on accessories to confirm the indoor temp? Out of curiousity, I tried search for anything on car interior temps under different temps (windows closed in the middle of a vast parking lot on a cloudless but humid day at 85 is a completely different scene than what was described here) but no luck and out of time. And the dog was in the car the entire time the cop was talking to the owners?

[Anonymous]

20 minutes in the shade and open windows with outside air temp of 85 and good breeze will probably not kill a dog.

BUT.

The laws cannot be that finely grained. The policeman was not in the wrong here.

I suggest they consult a lawyer in that jurisdiction to see what they can do.

And let's take the panic and guilt out of it. It's all going to be fine.

[Anonymous]

Yes, get a lawyer. The end.

[Anonymous]

Also don't leave your dog in a hot car. Try sitting in the hot car yourself some time if you think it's really NBD. Then try doing it with a fur coat on.

Maybe stories like this will get people to think twice before leaving their dog in a hot car.

I don't find it credible that they left the windows down. Wouldn't the dog jump out a window that's down? Probably the window was cracked. Again: go try sitting in that car yourself and see if it seems ok to you.

TL;DR: yes, get a lawyer.

[Anonymous]

Op, respectively, your parents are not even old. They are the same age as I am. They should be able to figure this out themselves. You’re treating them like children.

We would never in a million years leave our dog alone in the car under the conditions that you have described. We wouldn’t even leave them alone for five minutes. We travel frequently with our dogs, and when we have to stop one of us always stays with the dog. Actually, this is regardless of the temperature. Also, if the windows were down but the dog was not in a position to get out of the car that means that the space it was confined to had restricted airflow. It was definitely too hot for the dog. Your parents made a serious mistake and you need to stop babying them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here- a few people have said to just pay the fine and be done with it. There wasn't a fine (yet). I'm looking for advice. I believe the fine will be about 1k, but of course there could be more (I read about jail time associated with this law, but I think that's for worse offenses). If the police had fined my parents they would have just paid. This is a court appearance.

It it's not an "optional" ticket (i.e. they can choose to pay a fine or go to court), then they should get a lawyer. It's probably punishable with some sort of max jail sentence (not that they'll get it, but it helps define the level of charge). They should find a lawyer that is local to the courthouse and is good with misdemeanors (not just traffic offenses, but misdemeanors in general). Hopefully, they can negotiate it down to PBJ (probation before judgment) or to a petty offense with a fine (equivalent to a traffic offense).

[Anonymous]

Get a local lawyer,pay the fine and move on. DCUM posters will beat you to death over this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Get a local lawyer,pay the fine and move on. DCUM posters will beat you to death over this.

OP here. Yeah, which is why I didn't want it in this forum. I thought I'd get more legal advice if it was in Off Topics.

I told them to get a lawyer based on this advice. They are hoping the misdemeanor can go away. They're okay with a fine and they realize what they did was wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Windows down in the shade makes all the difference.

It'll be dismissed outright, or they'll be found not guilty.

I agree. Did the officer have a thermometer on him? Did the officer have them turn on accessories to confirm the indoor temp? Out of curiousity, I tried search for anything on car interior temps under different temps (windows closed in the middle of a vast parking lot on a cloudless but humid day at 85 is a completely different scene than what was described here) but no luck and out of time. And the dog was in the car the entire time the cop was talking to the owners?

OP has said repeatedly that the officer took the dog into his own car with AC blasting for 40 minutes to cool it down before giving it back to OP's parents.