Dog died after being left in car in Bloom garden festival last weekend

A dog died after being left in the car for more than three hours as his owner attended Bloom garden festival last weekend.

The animal was left in the car at 11am and was found to be “extremely ill” upon its owners return to the vehicle at 2.30pm. The dog was brought to a local vet where he had to be put down.

Gardai at Blanchardstown are now investigating the owners who left the dog unattended in a designated car park as temperatures soared to over 22 degrees last Friday.

The owner is believed to have been extremely distressed on discovering the animal’s condition.

A spokesperson from the DSPCA said: “A greater awareness needs to be paid to the dangers of leaving an animal unattended in a car for long periods of time." The spokesperson advised owners to be more conscious of their parking if they should have to leave their dog in the car.

“Owners should perhaps focus on finding a shaded area or even underground car parking. Ideally a person should be in the car with the dog so a window could be left open. Dogs should not be spending significant periods of time in cars on their own. We get a lot of calls in winter too about distressed animals in cars during extremely cold weather.” “Pet owners should also take note of the time. It’s so easy for five minutes in a shopping centre to turn into an hour during which a car could become a very uncomfortably hot place.”