Articles Tagged with Is it legal to break a window to save a dog from a hot car?

Want some terrible advice? Don’t break a car window to save a poor puppy about to overheat if you’re anywhere in the State of Georgia. Michael Hammons of Athens, Georgia, a desert storm veteran, is finding this out the hard way after breaking the window of a car he found with an overheating dog inside. According to several news reports, Hammons was walking through a parking lot when he noticed a Ford Mustang with a small Pomeranian mix inside. With no windows open and no air conditioning running, the dog was distressed and likely about to die according to a number of onlookers.  After Hammons broke the window to rescue the dog he was charged with trespass per the dog owners demand!

So, morally and ethically, the advice NOT to break the window is terrible and one would have to be a real son of a bitch to not save this little dog. It seems as though Georgia would prefer to have a number of dead dogs and sons of bitches roaming around in order to prevent their version of trespassing from being committed. As attorneys we can’t uphold our oath to the bar and advise one to break the law at the same time. To do one excludes the other. In this situation, that’s tough to do. So what happens now and what would happen to someone in Florida if they did this?

First and foremost, I’m hard pressed to think of an incident in Florida where someone has left their hound in a hot car where they weren’t prosecuted for animal cruelty if the dog was in distress or died. In Florida, plain jane animal cruelty is a first degree misdemeanor punishable by up to 11 months, 29 days in jail and is proven if it can be shown that someone carried an animal in or upon a vehicle in a cruel or inhumane manner. In a Florida summer with the windows up and the dog left in a car the person is probably toast. Unless you get a jury of sons of bitches, once they hear those facts you’re out regardless of how good your criminal attorney is. So what if you break the window like Mr. Hammons? In my book you’re a hero. That said, theoretically you could be charged with trespass to a conveyance (a car is a conveyance) if they can show you willfully entered the conveyance belonging to another without their permission. There is a thought that criminal mischief could be charged if it can be shown that you damaged the personal property of another in a willful and malicious capacity.