Last year, Rolling Stone/Australia announced a Scottish group, Dogs Die in Hot Cars, had the “best band name in the history of rock ‘n’ roll.”

Band members, in defense of the name, say they hope to save a few dogs.

We hope they can because dogs do die in hot cars.

In the past two days, local police have responded to several calls for dogs in distress while locked in closed cars. It doesn’t take long for dogs, cats and people to become distressed in high temperatures.

Police have enough to do without having to respond to these kind of calls. Owners are responsible for the comfort and welfare of their pets.

The summertime temperature inside a car, even when the windows are cracked and the vehicle is shaded, can quickly reach 120 degrees. Dogs sweat differently than people, panting instead of sweating to cool down, and the exercise of heavy panting causes water loss in animals and increases the carbon dioxide inside the car. As a dog’s temperature rises, taxing circulatory and respiratory systems, the result can be heat exhaustion within minutes, then heat stroke and death.

Heat can literally cook a dog’s brain in 10 minutes, less time than it may take to run into the grocery store for a gallon of milk.

It is inhumane to risk animals’ health while running errands.