{"id":104560,"date":"2016-06-16T00:36:19","date_gmt":"2016-06-16T06:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/woman-cited-with-trespassing-for-freeing-pup-from-car\/"},"modified":"2016-06-16T00:36:19","modified_gmt":"2016-06-16T06:36:19","slug":"woman-cited-with-trespassing-for-freeing-pup-from-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/woman-cited-with-trespassing-for-freeing-pup-from-car\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman cited with trespassing for freeing pup from car"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"An
An effort by two women to free a puppy from hot pickup went awry earlier this month. The pooch checked out fine when taken to a veterinarian, and one of the woman was cited for trespassing.<\/span>From La Plata County Humane Society Facebook<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Shelby Perovich, 25, reached into the back window of a blue 1996 Chevy pickup to unlock it, but the window popped off, fell to the ground and shattered, according to a Durango Police Department report.<\/p>\n

Perovich did not return calls seeking comment.<\/p>\n

Durango resident Victoria Fristensky, a health benefit advisor at Mercy Regional Medical Center, said she walked out of the building about 4:30 p.m. June 7 and heard a puppy whining. It was \u201chot as hell\u201d and the windows were \u201ca little cracked,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The day\u2019s high reached 85 degrees, recorded at 5:05 p.m. at the Durango-La Plata County Airport, according to the National Weather Service.<\/p>\n

Fristensky said the dog was on the floor under the steering wheel. She took a picture of the license plate and reported it to hospital security so they could try to locate the truck\u2019s owner.<\/p>\n

She then called 911, and a dispatcher advised her to call La Plata County Animal Protection.<\/p>\n

About that time, Perovich exited the hospital carrying her baby and also heard the puppy crying, Fristensky said.<\/p>\n

Fristensky and Perovich tried unsuccessfully to open the truck doors. Then Perovich tried the window, which popped out and fell to the ground.<\/p>\n

Animal Protection arrived at 4:47 p.m., said Travis Woehrel, managing supervisor for the agency. The window was broken when officers arrived, he said. Officers took the temperature of the car, which read 110 degrees near where the puppy was sitting, according to a police report.<\/p>\n

Woehrel declined to speculate how much the car may have cooled after the window was broken.<\/p>\n

The two front windows were open about 3 inches, and the back driver-side window also was cracked open, the report stated.<\/p>\n

The puppy was taken to the La Plata County Humane Society, and a veterinarian determined the dog to be in good shape, Woehrel said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that it was fairly young, and it was perfectly healthy when the vet checked it out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The truck belongs to Durango residents Kia and Lorrin Willden, who could not be reached this week for comment.<\/p>\n

Woehrel encourages people to call Animal Protection before taking matters into their own hands.<\/p>\n

It is not unusual, especially this time of year, for people to call Animal Protection concerned about a pet inside a hot car, Woehrel said. Usually, the animal is a little uncomfortable but not in distress, he said.<\/p>\n

There is no defined temperature that causes distress in pets, he said, in part because there are too many factors at play, including how long the pet is left inside the car, the age of the animal and the overall health of the animal.<\/p>\n

Officers will look for signs of distress, Woehrel said, including lethargy, rapid panting and discolored gums.<\/p>\n

\u201cDogs pant even when it\u2019s cold outside, so panting doesn\u2019t necessarily mean much,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the calls we get, yeah, they\u2019re hot, and they could be more comfortable, but people aren\u2019t gone very long or they\u2019re doing things the right way to keep their pet safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Officers typically monitor the situation to ensure conditions don\u2019t worsen, he said.<\/p>\n

During his two years with Animal Protection, this is the first instance Woehrel can recall in which residents have taken matters into their own hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think a lot of people realize that breaking into a car like that is against the law,\u201d he said. \u201cI know their hearts are in the right spot, but people have rights that are being violated when people do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fristensky said she reported the car to security at 4:31 p.m., but it wasn\u2019t until 5:25 that the owner of the truck came to the parking lot. \u201cWhat if Shelby and I did not do anything in that hour?\u201d she said. \u201cThat dog would have been dead. So therein lies a problem \u2013 doing the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fristensky said she feels badly that Perovich received a citation because it is she who initiated the effort to free the puppy. Fristensky has offered to pay any expenses, including the estimated $1,800 it will cost to replace the window.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe as citizens, what is our responsibility? That is the question,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

shane@durangoherald.com<\/a> This story was updated as more information about the incident became available.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Tips for pets in cars<\/h4>\n

Animal Protection officers encourage residents to leave multiple windows cracked open to create airflow and park in the shade if possible if they have pets onboard.
\n If someone sees a pet left inside a hot car, they should:
\n Record the car\u2019s make, model and license plate number.
\n If there is a business nearby, notify an on-duty manager or security guard and ask them to make an announcement to find the car\u2019s owner. Many people will quickly return to their vehicle once they are alerted to the situation.
\n If the owner can\u2019t be found, call the nonemergency number of the local police or Animal Protection and wait by the car for them to arrive.
\n Humane Society of the United States<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

effort by two women to free a puppy from hot pickup went awry earlier this month. The pooch checked out fine when taken to a veterinarian, and one of the woman was cited for trespassing.From La Plata County Humane Society Facebook Shelby Perovich, 25, reached into the back window of a blue 1996 Chevy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":104561,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[382,168,13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-104560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-animal","tag-crime","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104560"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=104560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}