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A dog waits for it's owner in car parked on Bathurst Street south of Dundas Street in Toronto on May 9, 2011.Peter Power

Alarmed by the increased number of pets left in cars during this summer's heatwave, Etobicoke Councillor Gloria Lindsay Luby wants mall owners to post warning signs in their parking lots reminding pet owners that heat kills.

Ms. Lindsay Luby, a dog lover and animal advocate, said she has already called police this summer to report a terrier left in a parked car.

"Too many dogs have died and the police keep getting called," she said.

The councillor said she got the idea from a constituent who e-mailed her a picture of a warning sign from a U.S. mall.

Because shopping centre parking lots are on private property, Ms Lindsay Luby said the city can only request that owners post them.

The sign she circulated as an exampled carried the warning "heat kills children and pets in parked vehicles."

Council endorsed the move 31-2 with only Mayor Rob Ford and Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong voting against it.

"Stupid people will do stupid things and if you put up signs they will continue to do stupid things, " Mr. Minnan-Wong said.

During the last heat wave alone in Toronto, the Toronto Humane Society says it received 61 calls about dogs.

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