A teenager came to the aid of a small dog left inside a truck in extremely hot weather after she noticed the dog “honking the horn”.

Gabrielle Dart, 17, was visiting her local McDonald’s in Somerset, England, with her mother when she noticed the dog inside the truck with only a small crack in the vehicle’s window. The temperature outside was 27 degrees Celcius (81F).

“We heard a car horn which kept going off and realised it was the dog honking the horn,” Gabrielle told Somerset Live. “So I took some photos, got the manager and alerted them.”

She ran to tell the restaurant’s manager and they reported it to police, but when they returned to the vehicle, it was gone.

Gabrielle later posted about the incident on Facebook to try and track down the owner of the vehicle writing: “Hello everyone, can someone please tell me who owns this vehicle as they left there dog in there car for around 40mins in 27 degrees heat! This is unacceptable! Do people not understand dogs are incapable of sweating. But people think this is okay because they left a crack in the window.”

Unfortunately, authorities in Britain are having a busy summer rescuing dogs from hot cars despite repeated warnings to pet owners.

“It’s really worrying to hear of all of the incidents of dogs being left in cars in just the last few days,” a spokeswoman for the RSPCA said. “Our inspectors have helped rescue dogs from unbearably hot vehicles and found them in heartbreaking conditions: collapsed, exhausted, frightened and some with injuries where they’ve been trying to chew and scratch their way out.”

“Please don’t put your dog through this – don’t leave your dog unattended in a stationary vehicle at all. The message here is simple: dogs die in hot cars.”