DEAR DR. FOX: With the beginning of summer, the risk of dogs dying in hot cars rises along with the temperatures. Social media posts have circulated across the country, urging people to break a window if they see a dog trapped inside a hot car, but it is not always legal to do so.

Only eight states -- California, Colorado, Indiana, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Florida, Ohio and Tennessee -- have “Good Samaritan” laws that allow any person to break a car window to save a pet. In 19 states, only a law enforcement officer is allowed to save an animal from a hot car; two states (Alabama and Arizona) have “hot car” bills pending. The No. 1 rule is to call 911.

There is a full list of laws that apply to animals trapped in cars on our website, aldf.org. -- N.L., Animal Legal Defense Fund

DEAR N.L.: Thank you for this important, life-saving notice, which might also save a few human infants in the process from multi-tasking and distracted parents and guardians.

DEAR DR.FOX: Help me out here. I am down to one cat, and I want to adopt another, but there are complications: First, we are planning to move in two months to one of those “old-folks' homes,” so I was putting off an adoption until we moved. There's no sense in moving the cat twice. Second, I wanted to adopt an older cat, so it wouldn’t outlive me. Our existing cat is 9 years old, and a big bruiser at 18 pounds. He will have to come to grips with being an indoor cat once we move.

I stopped by the local humane society and they had only one old cat, Audrey Hepburn. Apparently, her person died, and there she was, stuck in a cage at the pound. She is 13, and she was not a happy camper. She just stared at me. Living in a cage is not her idea of a life. She's a small, declawed (ugh) cat.

So what to do? I hate the thought of her living there in that cage, but I don’t think she would be able to hold her own against my cat. He has had other cats around during his stay here, but they have all died, so now he is alone. I’m not sure what he would do if a) I introduced a new cat, and b) they were forced to co-exist indoors.

I feel so sorry for this old gal. Help! -- E.J., Westminster, Maryland

DEAR E.J.: I understand your dilemma, and I appreciate your concern.

First, you must be very clear that cats are allowed in the facility where you will be moving, and ideally get it in writing. If there is a change in administration or any issue with any other resident with animals, they may prohibit residents keeping animals.

Sometimes cats and dogs get on with each other quickly when put together in an unfamiliar place at the same time, because neither has a strong territorial response. I would board your cat for the day or two until you are moved in to your new accommodations and set up the furniture in one room the way he is used to. Give him 24 hours to settle down, then bring home the cat from the shelter and keep her in a separate room or in a large cage with her own litter box, food, water and bed. Plug in a Feliway pheromone dispenser in both rooms, and follow the steps of introducing a new cat, as posted on my website DrFoxVet.net.

Alternatively, especially if the shelter is crowded and under such conditions where there is no quarantine and Audrey Hepburn is more likely to pick up a respiratory infection, follow your instincts and pick her up as soon as possible after she is pronounced well and free of parasites and any signs of respiratory infection by an animal doctor. Then follow the same steps of introduction in my article on this delicate process.

Keep me posted, and good luck!

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

Visit Dr. Fox's website at DrFoxVet.net.)

DEAR READERS: Nearly 1 in 3 drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) between 2001 and 2010 have had a safety issue detected in the years after approval, according to a report by Dr. N.S. Dowling and associates published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. While most of the safety concerns are not serious enough to require withdrawal of a drug from the market, the finding highlights the need for ongoing surveillance of new drugs in the post-market period.

So-called “fast-track approval" and the revolving doors between corporations and regulatory agencies -- coupled with deregulation, staff and science advisory panel downsizing, and the anti-science attitude of the current administration -- do not bode well for consumer, animal and environmental protection. Government serving corporate interests first is exemplified by the long-standing immunity of vaccine manufacturers from prosecution afforded by government protection. (For more information, visit hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation.)

Pet food monitor Susan Thixton writes: “Most pet food consumers understand that the FDA is a regulatory authority over pet food. But many don’t know that the FDA works with most state departments of agriculture in regulating pet food. Many consumers believe the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) enforces law with pet food, but ... they don’t. AAFCO has no regulatory authority at all." For details of how the regulatory control breaks down with pet food, see truthaboutpetfood.com.

Nor is the FDA the only government entity overseeing the safety of farmed animal feed. At the federal level, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approves feed-through pesticides, and the United States Department of Agriculture approves biologics (vaccines) that are added to animal feed. The EPA also establishes tolerances for pesticides on raw agricultural commodities and feed ingredients. The EPA is responsible for ensuring that all pesticides sold in the United States do not cause unreasonable risks when they are used according to label directions and precautions. Flea and tick products for pets are regulated by either the FDA or the EPA. The FDA is responsible for regulating animal drugs; however, some products to control external parasites come under the jurisdiction of EPA. According to the FDA, “(The) FDA and EPA work together to ensure adherence to all applicable laws and regulations. In general, flea and tick products that are given orally or by injection are regulated by FDA.”

While many good people -- scientists, human and animal doctors, lawyers and other professionals -- work for these agencies, their collective efforts are limited by the lack of self-regulation and ethics in most industries and the business world, and often undermined and even blocked by other governmental agencies and branches. Such profit-driven anti-democratic activities are a challenge to civil society and the rule of law, and they are a reminder to all elected to political office that they are there to serve the public interest first and foremost.

DEAR DR. FOX: My 10-year-old rat terrier has had seizures for the past two years, and they last anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes. They're mild, with shaking and rigidity in the legs.

How big a concern is this? I have taken her to the vet as I always do for her annual physical. We discussed the seizures, and I was advised to bring her in for monitoring once or twice a year, and if conditions worsen then further steps will be taken. -- D.D., Boca Raton, Florida

DEAR D.D.: Seizures, caused by many factors and thus often difficult to control, can be debilitating, emotionally and physically stressful and have fatal consequences. Some forms of seizure can be controlled with drugs, phenobarbital and cannabis being effective for many dogs. If the frequency, intensity and duration of seizures increase, then pharmaceutical intervention is called for.

Possible prevention may lie in making organic coconut oil the main fat source in your dog’s diet, this oil being shown to help prevent and shorten seizures in some dogs. Applying an ice pack to the lumbar region of your dog’s back when a seizure is occurring may lessen its severity and duration.

THE FLATTER THE FACE, THE SICKER THE DOG

The Nationwide Brachycephalic Breed Disease Prevalence Study notes that short-nosed breeds from pugs to mastiffs are more often affected by common conditions, not just known issues associated with brachycephaly.

A bio-statistical analysis of the pet health insurance claims of more than 1.27 million dogs over a nine-year span shows that even after removing conditions linked specifically to brachycephalic breeds, dogs with the structure common to these animals are less healthy than dogs with a more normal canine appearance. Common conditions include greater prevalence than seen in dogs with normal muzzles and skulls of: digestive and respiratory problems; cancer; skin diseases; various eye, ear, anal gland, dental, bladder/cystitis and heart issues; patellar and inter-vertebral disk luxations and other spinal conditions; and greater susceptibility to hyperthermia or heat stroke.

In summary, the flatter a dog’s face is, no matter how appealing or standard for the breed, the more general health problems -- in addition to serious ones specifically caused by the facial deformation they will suffer compared to dogs with normal skulls and length of muzzle. For details, visit nationwidedvm.com/studies-and-research.

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

Visit Dr. Fox's website at DrFoxVet.net.)

DEAR DR. FOX: In a recent column, you printed a letter from G.R.R. of Buffalo, New York, that included so-called statistics that claimed that feral cats kill 1.3 to 4 billion birds and 6.3 to 22.3 billion mammals annually in the United States.

Those numbers are bogus and from a discredited study, but they have been passed around as gospel for years. Any statistic that has a range of accuracy of 300 percent is not a useful statistic -- it is a wild guess. The author of this letter also states that cats represent far and away the major killer when compared to other human-related causes of death to birds and mammals. That is just false.

Probably the biggest killer of wildlife is the American lawn, a green desert infused with dangerous chemicals. Lawn grass is one of the biggest crops grown in America, and it is useless and dangerous territory to birds and other wildlife. Millions of birds and mammals are slaughtered by hunters for fun in the United States every year. Window strikes and vehicle collisions are a major cause of death to birds, especially during migration. Destruction of habitat for farming and development is a much bigger threat to all wildlife than predation.

I grew up next to a hay field where bobolinks nested for the last 60 years, and many years before that. Five years ago, Bristol, Connecticut, built a new school where the hay field used to be. Bobolinks survived feral cats, but even though they are a species of special concern, an elementary school that could have been built elsewhere destroyed the bobolinks nesting area.

G.R.R. cites reduced numbers of meadowlarks, vesper sparrows, field sparrows and grasshopper sparrows, all of which have been affected by the loss of farms to development, not by feral cats.

People find it easy to blame cats rather than take on hunters and developers, but birds have evolved with predators, not humans with guns and bulldozers. If any bird species goes extinct, the extinction is caused by man's greed and stupidity, not by cats. -- S.W.B., Waldorf, Maryland

DEAR S.W.B.: Thank you for your summary of the many factors pushing bird and other wildlife species and communities across the nation into extinction. I was not aware that the cat predation bird mortality study had been discredited. Regardless, the cat incursion is but one aspect of relentless worldwide human invasion and destruction, which must be stopped. Nor should we ignore the demise of the oceans, now at grave risk from oil drilling, overfishing, acidification and rare-mineral dredge-mining. Few dare mention human birth control as one preventive measure!

I live in Minnesota, where greed, as in other states, seems unquenchable. For instance, producers of GMO corn and soybeans for the livestock and poultry industries and for export have destroyed vast acreages of prairie and other wildlife habitat. They have now planted so much that they have overproduced and shrunk their own profits. As for lawns and golf courses and the chemicals used on them, I have documented their harms in past columns and regard them as culturally unexamined abominations!

CHECK OUT TAP WATER FOR HEALTH’S SAKE

The municipal water and public health crisis of tap water contamination with lead in Flint, Michigan, was a wake-up call and underscores the 2017 report from the Natural Resources Defense Council that U.S. residents have a 1-in-4 chance that their tap water is either unsafe to drink or has not been properly monitored for contaminants. Visit nrdc.org/sites/default/files/whats-in-your-water-flint-beyond-report.pdf for more information.

I am especially concerned about cats and dogs drinking unpurified tap water and standing water outdoors, both of which can make them seriously ill and even die. For details, see my article "Pure Water for Cats and Dogs and All,” posted on my website, DrFoxVet.net.

THE TYPE OF MEAT EVANGER’S USED

Pet food monitor Susan Thixton reports, “It was more than inedible, the meat supplier Evanger’s Pet Food purchased from was a dead animal carcass processor. This is a company that removes dead animals from farms (including euthanized horses) and processes the meat from those dead animals for sale to pet food. This was why and how the euthanasia drug pentobarbital got in to some dog foods." (Visit truthaboutpetfood.com/the-type-of-meat-evangers-really-used/ for more information.)

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

Visit Dr. Fox's website at DrFoxVet.net.)