Picture this: It’s a warm summer day, and you’re on your way to a party. You’ve left yourself just enough time to stop at the mall to pick up a last-minute gift. But as you’re walking to the nearest entrance, you hear a stomach-turning sound: the muffled, frantic barks of a dog trapped inside a hot car. What do you do?

Time isn’t on your side, but it’s really not on the dog’s side. Ignore her cries, and she could be dead before the ink on the gift receipt dries. She needs your help—right now.

Even on a mildly warm day, a parked car can become an oven in no time. When it’s 75 degrees outside, the temperature inside a parked car can soar to 104 degrees in just 20 minutes. On a 90-degree day, the interior temperature can reach a sweltering 119 degrees in the same amount of time. Parking in the shade, leaving the windows partially open and/or leaving water inside the vehicle do not keep vehicles cool enough to be safe.

Dogs have already died in hot vehicles this spring. A Phoenix woman was arrested after reportedly leaving her small dog in a car for five hours on a 90-degree day. She claimed that she had left the windows partially open, the air conditioning running and water for the dog to drink—but when she returned to the vehicle, her dog was under the driver’s seat, dead. A Salt Lake City man may face a felony cruelty charge after allegedly leaving his 15-month-old dog in a car for four hours in 80-degree temperatures, which proved fatal. A responding officer said the vehicle had reached 120 degrees inside.

Some people think it’s OK to leave an animal in a car for just “a few minutes,” but it only takes “a few minutes” to cook a dog alive. And it’s a terrifying, agonizing way to die.

As their body temperature—and panic—rises, many dogs bark and desperately claw at the car windows, floor and seats. Some claw so frantically that their feet bleed. Soon, their liver, kidneys and brain begin to shut down. They lose control of their bowels, vomit, suffer heart attacks, collapse and lose consciousness. According to one veterinarian, “When you do an autopsy on a dog that died this way, the organs are soupy.”

Sasha, a K9 officer in Georgia, clawed and ripped chunks of leather off the seats, bit through seatbelts and tore off the rear-view mirror as she desperately tried to escape the hot patrol vehicle where she had been left over the weekend. When her handler returned the following Monday, he found her decomposing remains.

Dogs can only cool themselves by panting and by minimal sweating through their footpads. They cannot effectively shed body heat at temperatures above 89.5 degrees. When their body temperature reaches 106 to 109 degrees—which doesn’t take long in a baking-hot vehicle—heatstroke sets in, resulting in brain damage or death.

If you see a dog in a hot car, note the vehicle’s license plate, color, make and model and have the driver paged in nearby stores and/or call 911 immediately. Explain that it’s an emergency and the dog’s life is in danger. If the dog shows signs of heatstroke (restlessness, heavy panting, vomiting, lethargy and lack of coordination), get him or her out of the car and into the shade as quickly as possible, reduce the animal’s body temperature with lukewarm water and immediately call a veterinarian.

Every second counts if you see a dog (or anyone) trapped inside a hot vehicle. Weddings, weekend plans and work can wait—the pup baking to death in the parking lot can’t.