As an animal lover, it’s easy to become concerned about the welfare of any animal that you see in a potentially dangerous situation.

Many of these situations turn out to be nothing, of course, but it pays to be vigilant at times too.

So when the person in this story thought they saw a dog being left in a hot car, they intervened immediately.

However it was this quick action that got them into a lot of hot water.

Read on to see what happened.

AITA for asking a woman about a dog in her car?

Before I went to work today, I stopped and got a snack at a grocery store.

I was just about to pull out of my parking space when I saw a woman pull up in a spot diagonal to me (she parked poorly, but that’s beside the point) with two small dogs in the passenger seat.

It looked like she was starting to walk towards the store entrance so I got out and asked her if she was leaving her dogs in the car.

Let’s see how the conversation went.

Her: excuse me?

Me: it’s hot outside

Her: (with a raised voice) are you kidding me? I think you should mind your own business!

Me: I’m sorry I care about animals and just wanted to make sure you didn’t leave them.

This really got the woman riled up.

Her: You think I don’t care about my animals? Wow! You really should mind your own business. And yes I am taking my dogs.

Me: (said sarcastically) have a great day!

That wasn’t verbatim, but it was just a lot of mind your own business said in a very rude way.

If I were in her shoes, I would probably respond with something like, “thank you for your concern but of course I’m bringing them in with me!” or something similar, unless I had someone else in the car with me, the AC was on and they were staying.

The conversation left the person feeling really shaken.

I live in New England, and the temperature got up to 67°F with lots of sun.

However as most people know, even on a “cool” day, cars can get super hot especially under the sun, even if the windows were open like hers were.

So, I’m wondering if I was wrong because it did look like she was walking towards the store entrance as she was no longer right next to her car.

Was I too quick to judge and assume? I just feel like she could’ve responded kinder instead of yelling at me.

AITA?

Of course, it’s a problem when dogs are left in hot cars for an extended period – but it seems like the woman had opened the windows of the car to let fresh air in.

This person clearly thought they were doing the right thing, and if the woman had been leaving the dogs in the car for an extended period, they would surely have thanked them for it.

But it’s also understandable that the woman felt a little confronted and upset, if she’d always been going to do the right thing to begin with anyway.

Let’s see what folks on Reddit had to say about this.

This person thought that they had been far too quick to intervene.

Whilst others called out the ridiculousness of their assumptions.

Meanwhile, this Redditor explained how dangerous it is to make such assumptions.

If the person had actively witnessed a dog being left in a hot car, without ventilation, for a sustained period they would be absolutely right to do something about it.

But to accost the woman before she’d even done anything wrong was an overly-aggressive stance based on assumptions and nothing more.

It’s no wonder the woman responded similarly, she was being treated as guilty whilst knowing she was completely innocent, by a busybody who imagined the consequences of something that wasn’t even happening.

That was too much.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a guy who was forced to sleep on the couch at his wife’s family’s house, so he went to a hotel instead.