Massachusetts pet owners beware...

[M_Six]

It's now legal for someone to break your windows to "rescue" your pet.

Boston Globe

If a bystander believes retrieving the animal is essential to the pet’s well-being, they are also allowed to enter the vehicle if they have made efforts to contact the owner. After removing the pet from the vehicle, they must then remain with the animal until law enforcement officials arrive.

The legislation also stipulates that whenever there is a weather advisory, warning, or watch in place, a dog owner can not tether a dog outside for more than 15 minutes, with a few exceptions.

What could possibly go wrong?

[fravel]

I'm ok with this.

[P1]

Sounds good to me!

[Joekerr]

I'm ok with the car part. Not ok with the tethering outside part, but then, I haven't made any efforts to read the law and just took what you quoted at face value.

Being outside is ok for a dog - give them some water and shade, what - you don't think animals in the bush are in the same temperatures?

[M_Six]

Being a lifelong pet owner, I certainly don't want to see pets endangered. But giving discretionary power like this to John Q Public is asking for trouble. It is, in effect, deputizing the public. What if you've only been away for a few minutes like ducking into Starbucks and someone trashes your window? Will the window smasher have to pay? Your insurance company might not since the smasher was acting within the law.

[Mr Tonka]

Similar law here in FL. But when introducing the law they warned "do-gooders" that they had better be 100% sure it's warranted because they will be liable if pet is not in immediate danger.

But still, guy jogs up to a running trail parking lot on a hot day. Sees a dog panting heavily in the passenger seat. Looks around, doesn't see anyone and breaks the window to free Fido. As he gets Fido out of the car, the owner, who had just taken Fido for a 2 mile job exits from the rest room where he was changing his clothes. Who pays? Who enforces it?

Better yet, do-gooder breaks the window and as the owner steps out of the rest room he sees his dog viciously attacking the do-gooder. Now do-gooder, after an ambulance ride to the hospital, files police report. Dog is quarantined at vet's office, owner is being sued for medical and emotional damages. To add insult to injury, the dog is deemed dangerous by the courts that made the law allowing the do-gooder to break the glass in order to help it..... and is euthanized.

But what do i know, i'm sure our stellar governments have thought of everything before enacting such laws.

[Joekerr]

Originally Posted by Mr Tonka

But what do i know, i'm sure our stellar governments have thought of everything before enacting such laws.

Only the best and brightest go into government Joe - you know that!

[Mr Tonka]

Originally Posted by Joekerr

Only the best and brightest go into government Joe - you know that!

Damn it. I always forget that for some reason.

[M_Six]

I can imagine many instances where someone overreacts and needlessly breaks a window. We'll see how it goes in MA.

[08njSTEP]

I took my dog out for her shit. We then walked over to laundry mat where I leashed her to a bench while I transfered clothes from wash to dry. Dude goes up to my dog with a bowl of water as I'm coming out. He says,"I didn't see anyone around and...." 3 whole minutes passed. Now I love dogs, but mind your own fucking business.

[PINeely]

Who's going to pay, the owner? I'm sure they'll be ecstatic about having to pay for a new window while the person who broke it is feeling all heroic and getting praised by police.

This is actually a really big problem where I live because it's so hot and everyone takes their dumb dogs with them everywhere they go. Not sure why they do, but they do. There have also been several cases this year of kids dying because they were left in the car. Shortly after the most recent child died there was a LOT of Good Samaritan window breaking, so much that it was covered on the local news. Problem is a whole lot more windows were broken than children and dogs saved. Those who stuck around were able to tell police that they had thought they saw a kid or a dog or whatever in the car but most just said oops and left the scene. So you come outside, your window is busted, nobody around, maybe the person who broke it took a little something for their trouble. Sounds like auto burglary with a good cover story to me.

[MightyMouseTech]

If you leave a pet in a hot car, you deserve a hell of a lot worse than a broken window.

[smoosh]

Horrible policy.

Think of the logic this creates...privileging civilians to break car windows based on a subjective standard? What constitutes as an "effort" at contacting the owner?

Suddenly, we start seeing more broken car windows than pets saved. Then attorneys. Then lawsuits. Then insurance claims. Then clogged legal system.

[fravel]

I mean... if someone breaks a window without a pet inside one of 2 things will happen:

#1. They leave before they are caught, treated as vandalism/burglary the same way it always has been.

#2. They stick around and face the consequences. No one is going to just let them go if they say "Ohh my bad I thought I saw a dog."

Maybe I just have too much faith that people aren't going around looking for a reason to smash someone else's car window. I see this law as giving good samaritans the confidence to act in the best interest of a pet without fear of feeling like "damned if I do, damned if I don't". No good deed goes unpunished, and all that.

[smoosh]

Originally Posted by fravel

I mean... if someone breaks a window without a pet inside one of 2 things will happen:

#1. They leave before they are caught, treated as vandalism/burglary the same way it always has been.

#2. They stick around and face the consequences. No one is going to just let them go if they say "Ohh my bad I thought I saw a dog."

Maybe I just have too much faith that people aren't going around looking for a reason to smash someone else's car window. I see this law as giving good samaritans the confidence to act in the best interest of a pet without fear of feeling like "damned if I do, damned if I don't". No good deed goes unpunished, and all that.

Well, the bigger concern isn't about breaking a window without a pet inside, it's about breaking a window with a pet inside when the window need not have been broken.

[John 070]

yeah my cousin won this "giant Snoopy" at the Big E last year, and went to the Natick Mall afterwards and it was in plain sight. This dude smashes his window to rescue the giant Snoopy, and my cousin said are you freakin' crazy it's a stuffed animal and proceeds to call the PD. PD said that the good samaritan knew the giant Snoopy was a stuffed animal but felt it was too hot inside the car and acted in accordance with the law. This is progress

[Mr Tonka]

Originally Posted by fravel

I mean... if someone breaks a window without a pet inside one of 2 things will happen:

#1. They leave before they are caught, treated as vandalism/burglary the same way it always has been.

#2. They stick around and face the consequences. No one is going to just let them go if they say "Ohh my bad I thought I saw a dog."

Maybe I just have too much faith that people aren't going around looking for a reason to smash someone else's car window. I see this law as giving good samaritans the confidence to act in the best interest of a pet without fear of feeling like "damned if I do, damned if I don't". No good deed goes unpunished, and all that.

Originally Posted by smoosh

Well, the bigger concern isn't about breaking a window without a pet inside, it's about breaking a window with a pet inside when the window need not have been broken.

This would be my concern as well. People are stupid and jump to conclusions based on little to no real information. I mean this is the LAW now, it must happen regularly. Even though they have no idea how long the pet is in the car or if the car has auto stop/start or if you came out of the store to leave, loaded your pet and went back in because you forgot your credit card.

I do believe the idiot instances will be few because...... 1, Thugs who are prone to break a car window at the drop of a hat aren't usually do-gooders, looking for police interactions. 2, There aren't enough people out there who care for pets who would also break a car window at the drop of a hat. 3, Breaking a car window isn't as easy as it is in the movies.

I just don't like the idea of giving (perceived) protection for damaging someone else's property to someone who may have bad judgement. Doesn't seem like a smart thing to do as our society continues to slide into an Idiocracy.

[larryn]

Originally Posted by M_Six

I can imagine many instances where someone overreacts and needlessly breaks a window. We'll see how it goes in MA.

Having grown up in liberal Massachusetts, there are a lot of pious and self-righteous-looking-for-a-cause people there. I can see this could easily be abused.

Of course, I relocated to Seattle, that has protest marches most days for various reasons...

I wonder if there is a similar law on the books for babies/kids locked in cars? Where does common sense kick in, rather than legislation?

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by larryn

Having grown up in liberal Massachusetts, there are a lot of pious and self-righteous-looking-for-a-cause people there. I can see this could easily be abused.

Of course, I relocated to Seattle, that has protest marches most days for various reasons...

I wonder if there is a similar law on the books for babies/kids locked in cars? Where does common sense kick in, rather than legislation?

I grew up in MA, too. Moved out here to IL about 15 years ago. MA had some advantages, like being close to oceans and mountains and lakes and ponds. Good seafood everywhere. Stuff like that. But the high cost of living and ridiculous crowding drove us out. I'm still stunned at how overcrowded it is any time I go back there.

Out where I live now it's the polar opposite. No crowds at all. Housing is still amazingly cheap here. We live well on a modest income. But there isn't a natural lake within 100 miles of us. Seafood consists of walleye, walleye, or walleye. A decent sized airport is at least 2 hours away. And we have the most corrupt and useless state government you've ever seen. Even worse than MA. We live in a township, outside the limits and ordinances of any town or city. That took some getting used to. Burn permits? Ha! Not here. Burn anything you want anytime you want. I saw one couple light a huge barn on on fire and sit there on lawn chairs watching the show and swilling beer while it burned. A neighbor up the street from us built a large berm across his back yard and set up a shooting range. Perfectly legal, if not very neighbor-friendly. The sound of poachers hunting at night is not unusual here. Life in the wilderness, I guess.

But it's the quasi-libertarian atmosphere rubbing off on me out here that has me second-guessing laws like this that may be based on good intentions, but can often lead to unintended consequences. Mr Tonka's example of a dog attacking a good Samaritan wannabe is spot on. Break a window to free a Rottweiler and you might quickly wish you hadn't.

As for your other question, I do believe it's already legal to enter a car to save a child. Although there again, unless the kid is in obvious trouble, calling the police should be the first move. The police will show up very quickly for that in most cases.

[Cattivo]

Seems like a good time to invest in a center punch set

[RickFLM4]

I have 2 dogs and rarely leave them in the car alone. When I do it is for a very short period such as picking up dry cleaning on the way home from the vet's office. The car and a/c are running with the windows open a little - and the car is within my view. I'm more concerned about them smudging the windows with wet noses than someone breaking the window.

Don't leave dogs in a hot car with the windows closed and no one should break your window. If you are running errands, leave the dogs at home. Pretty simple way to avoid the potential scenarios in this thread.