In a matter of minutes, pets and children left in cars on a hot summer day can overheat. 

With the help of PETA, Campbell Police officers are working to stop these dangerous situations. Campbell Police Officer Jim Conroy asked PETA for 10 window-breaking hammers.

Not only are the hammers by PETA more effective at breaking windows, but it's also safer than using a brick or other large object to break the car window. The tempered glass on most windows is stronger than it looks, meaning some windows need a special tool to break. 

"We don’t have any tools that we carry as police officers that can break a window easily. Sometime you’ll see in videos officers using batons and that doesn’t work," said Conroy.

Every Campbell police cruiser will have one of these window-breaking hammers.

Conroy said if it's over 70 degrees outside, it's not safe to leave your pets in the car. In 70 degree weather, the inside of a car can hit 100 degrees in about 20 minutes.

"Time is critical if you respond to a call for an animal or a child in a car. I mean they may have already been in there 10, 15, 20 minutes. A half an hour, so when we’re getting there, it could be seconds, it could be minutes until something bad happens," said Conroy.

PETA is selling the hammers. They can be used by anyone to save a child or pet if it's absolutely necessary.

"When nothing is happening and the animal or whoever in the car is suffering, you know we want people to be able to what they need to do to save that individual life," said Rachel Bellis, PETA Director of local affairs in the Cruelty Investigations Department.

According to Ohio law, you can break a car window when trying to save an animal if someone has a good faith belief that forcible entry into the vehicle is necessary because the animal is in imminent danger of suffering harm.

Bellis said Campbell is one of the first departments to ask for the hammers, but hopes others follow.