A leading dog behaviourist has criticised rules surrounding preventing animals inside service stations across the UK.
Louise Glazebrook, who has featured on BBC show 12 Puppies & Us, questioned why dog owners are faced with the choice of leaving dogs in 30 degree cars or going to the toilet in the services during an Instagram video to her thousands of followers.
She then had to let her eight-year-old use the service station alone so she “didn’t have to leave (her) dog to melt or die within the car”.
In the clip posted last week, Louise said she was travelling alone with her six and eight-year-old children and dog, Pip.
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They stopped at a service station in Cambridge at which point her car was saying between 27 and 30 degrees outside, which is not a safe temperature to leave a dog in a car.
Louise said: “I was then torn with the decision of do I leave my dog in a potentially fatal situation where he could overheat and die or do I get my child to run in to a service station alone, use the loo and come back to me?
“That’s what I had to do, and I can’t say I feel comfortable about that.”
She made the point that the RSPCA, the Metropolitan Police, Dogs Trust and more call on owners not to leave dogs in cars, but service stations are not providing the services for people in the situation.
On its website, Moto asks dog owners to tie their dogs up in a safe place rather than leaving them in a car and a number of stations do allow entrance to assistance dogs.
However Bark St Albans, a dog walking company in Hertfordshire, commented saying: “Not just the heat too. So many dogs get stolen from service stations because owners have had to make that awful choice.”
RSPCA also advises against this due to the 170% rise of dog thefts during the pandemic, according to DogLost.
Another comment from @rio_londonpuppy said: “Dogs are allowed in most motorway service stations in Italy and France. It’s shocking this is not the case in the UK.”
Another said: “Well behaved dogs should be allowed everywhere.”
Louise encouraged her followers to have a conversation in the comments section, and said she would take the points to the PR companies of the big service stations.
