Dogs rescued from carpark of Gold Coast’s Wet’n’Wild

Two dogs are lucky to be alive after their owners left them in a hot car while heading out to a theme park for the holidays.

Two dogs have been rescued from inside an “oven” hot car parked outside the Gold Coast’s Wet’N’Wild while their owners were enjoying a day at the water park.

Police were forced to smash the window of the vehicle when the condition of one of the dogs deteriorated significantly as temperatures outside reached 28 degrees.

“It was panting and laying down on its side, not responding,” RSPCA inspector Ben Newman said.

“That’s when the decision was made to enter the vehicle due to concerns about the dog’s imminent welfare.”

He said the dogs were very lucky to survive.

“The car was like an oven. If not found in time, they wouldn’t be alive.”

Video footage shows one of the dogs lying down panting heavily.

Officers made the decision to break the windows after the dog became unresponsive.

The RSPCA and police were called out to the carpark on Wednesday of Wet’n’Wild after members of the public saw the two dogs inside.

Police tried to locate the owners, including running the number plate of the car.

But as the vehicle was from NSW, they were unable to contact them.

Wet’n’Wild also made multiple announcements over its speaker system without luck.

At first the dogs were responsive, according to Mr Newman, however as time went on, the temperature climbed within the vehicle.

The RSPCA inspectors and police were forced to act when the owner did not come forward and the dog’s condition worsened.

The windows of the car had to be smashed to reach the dogs.

The owners then got in contact with the RSPCA after returning to the car to find the windows smashed and a note left by inspectors

The pets were taken to a vet in nearby Helensvale, where they were found to have “no obvious concerns including heat stroke”.

They were later returned to their owners after they returned to their vehicle a few hours later to find the windows smashed.

“We gave them a slap on the wrist on this occasion as there’s no history of them offending previously,” Mr Newman said.

“We ended up giving the dogs back to them and explaining to them in very serious terms that they’re lucky the situation wasn’t worse.

“They were super remorseful.”

They were taken to a vet who cleared them of heat stroke.

The dogs’ owners were very remorseful according to RSPCA Inspectors.

The RSPCA hopes with more awareness people will realise the deadly risk pets face when left in vehicles and for people to leave their pets at home when heading to theme parks and shopping centres these school holidays.

“For a lot of us it seems like common sense but it wasn’t for them, so we took that opportunity to drum in the seriousness of what occurred,” Mr Newman said.

“It’s not an isolated incident, our guys are called out to theme parks, shopping centres, you name it, those are the hot spots.”

The RSPCA said dogs should never be left in locked cars.

Originally published as Dogs rescued from carpark of Gold Coast’s Wet’n’Wild