After spotting the animal she went into Tesco to alert staff who made ‘multiple announcements’ as concern for the dog’s wellbeing grew.
Joanna, herself a pet owner, said: ‘The poor little dog was panting and lying down by now. We were about to put the windows through when I ran in and bought a bottle of water for him.
‘I came out to the owners back with their shopping. The wife was polite and said sorry.
Watch Out For Your Dogs Feet in the Summer. Hot pavement can burn your dogs paws rather quickly. To see if it’s too hot for your dog place the back of your hand on the pavement – if you can’t hold it there for 5 seconds it’s too hot for your dog. On really hot days consider walking your dog in the woods, on the grass, or waiting til the sun goes down.
‘The husband told me to f*** off and mind my own business.’
According to Joanna the dog owner then grabbed the animal and shook it before he said ‘does that look like a mistreated dog to you, b****?’
She added: ‘I told him to give the dog some water and got told to ‘f*** off’ again.
‘He also said it was overcast and not even sunny so I said about the heat and how would he like the windows up.’
She said the owner was ‘totally ignorant’ of the dangers of leaving an animal in a car with the windows shut and thanked staff for their help.
A spokesman for Tesco said: ‘Colleagues at our Honiton store were alerted by a customer to a dog locked in a vehicle within our car park.
‘The dog was showing signs of distress and colleagues put out multiple in-store announcements to ask the owners to return to their vehicle, after which the owners returned to their car.’