Little Rock revises city code on pets in hot cars; authorities can now break windows

Little Rock code now expressly gives emergency personnel the ability to break into a vehicle to rescue an animal in heat distress.

Animal Services Manager Tracy Roark said that police and animal control officers could already rescue an animal under the current code, but City Director Capi Peck said she had heard concerns from police officers that they weren't able to save the animal if it meant breaking a window.

The Little Rock Board of Directors voted Tuesday night to update the animal cruelty ordinance. It now states that emergency personnel can enter a vehicle "by any means reasonable under the circumstances" if they believe the health and safety of an animal inside to be in jeopardy.

The old language already prohibited exposing an animal to extreme temperatures. Now it will be illegal to confine an animal in an unattended vehicle if the inside temperature is more than 90 degrees.

The ordinance states that the inside temperature of a vehicle can reach 140 degrees within an hour when the outside temperature is between 70 and 90 degrees, according to the American Veterinary medical Association.

Metro on 10/18/2017

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