Man busts window to save dog in hot truck in Largo

LARGO (FOX 13) - It's video we see all too often: Something or someone trapped in a hot vehicle.

Sunday afternoon, it was a dog.

"There was a lab sitting in there, he was just sitting there," said Jonathan Parris of Largo. "His mouth was open. Looked like he was panting."

Parris couldn't help but find a way to get this dog out of the car on an 80-degree day.

"I proceeded to feel like the dog was not going to last in a hot car," he told FOX 13.

Parris says he didn't know how long the dog had been sitting in the car. One bystander told him it had been over an hour.

He knew he had to rescue this dog, but he called police first.

"She said it's not high priority, and it could be 30 minutes to an hour," said Parris. "So, I mean, I took it into my own hands. I was accepting the consequences of what was going to happen. But, I mean the dog's life meant more than the trouble that would come with it."

Parris took a hammer to the window twice, and was able to unlock the truck from there.

"Right when I opened the door, I touched his fur and he was so hot," said Parris. "I mean you can only imagine, we don't have fur, so you put a fur coat on and all that, and then you get in the car and sit there for a few minutes and see how you feel."

When the dog's owner returned to find his truck broken into, Parris said he wasn't worried about the dog he left in there.

"He was just upset about his window, that's all he said. Sat over on the curb, called the police," said Parris. "Then after he called the police, they hurried up and got there after they knew I broke the window. But, before that, who knows how long it would have taken."
 
Parris said he gave the owner of the truck $50 to help repair the broken window.

It was a small price to pay to save a life.

"I would do it again for any kind of animal, any kind of child, anything," Parris added. "I wouldn't even think twice about doing it again."

A bill that would allow a bystander to break a window to rescue a pet is currently making its way through the Florida legislature, but it is still not legal for a bystander to take action to rescue a pet.

The ASPCA says the temperature inside a car could get up to 20 degrees hotter than it is outside, even if it is only 70 degrees.