Photo/Illutration A dog looks out from the passenger’s side in the front seat of a car in Nagoya’s Naka Ward on June 7. (Provided by an onlooker)

NAGOYA--A woman was arrested on suspicion of violating the animal welfare law by abandoning her two dogs inside a car for more than 10 hours on a hot day in June in Nagoya, police said.

The plight of the canines drew the attention of passers-by in a parking lot and also generated concern on social media at the time.

The suspect, a Brazilian who was identified as Chada Vieira Graziela Luzia, denies the allegations, according to police.

Aichi prefectural police said on Nov. 20 that the woman, who is unemployed and has no fixed address, is believed to have left the two male dogs inside a passenger car in a parking lot in Nagoya’s Naka Ward on June 7.

The dogs are thought to have remained in the vehicle for about 11 hours until around 4:25 p.m. that day.

The highest temperature that day was 25.2 degrees. With no rain, temperatures inside the car are believed to have risen even higher.

The woman's arrest came after police determined that her act constituted abandonment imperiling the lives of the animals under the law as the dogs were put in a situation that prevented them from moving about freely with no access to food or water.

Arata Ayabe, a veterinarian of the Ayabe animal clinic in Nagoya, said compared with humans, it is more difficult for dogs to regulate their body temperature as they have perspiration glands only in their nose and the pads of their paws.

“Dogs could suffer heatstroke if they were left inside a car,” he said. “Their keeper needs to ensure that precautions against the heat are taken for them.”

Police began receiving phone calls alerting them to the dogs’ predicament around 9 a.m. on June 7 after passers-by noticed their situation. Users of social media tweeted their concerns about the dogs’ welfare.

People gathered in the parking lot to offer water to the hapless canines through a gap in the car’s window.

Officers arrived at the scene to rescue them, placing them in the custody of an animal welfare center in Nagoya.

According to the National Police Agency, the number of animal abuse cases that police investigated totaled 170 nationwide in 2021.

The figure is 68 more than in 2020 and more than five times the number from a decade earlier.

The revised animal welfare law includes a clause penalizing an offender who abuses animals by raising them in a filthy environment and who abandons them outdoors and endangers their health.

Police said a person who leaves an animal inside a car without food and water on a hot day can become the subject of an investigation if they fail to take safeguards against the simmering heat.

The revised animal welfare law took effect in 2020.

Prior to that, an offender of the law through the act of abandonment faced a fine of up to 1 million yen ($7,120). Now, an offender faces imprisonment of up to a year or a fine under the revision.

(This article was written by Kohei Higashitani and Umeka Yoshinaga.)

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