Seat belts for dogs being legislated?
"Pennsylvania State Representative Tom Stevenson submitted a bill into the House Transportation Committee requiring dog owners to restrain their dogs while riding in a car. The state lawmaker is pushing for doggy seat belts on the advice of an 11-year-old constituent. Marc McCann of Green Tree came up with the idea as part of state Rep. Tom Stevenson's annual "There Ought to be a Law" contest. The bill requires drivers to restrain their animals, either with some kind of modified seat belt or in a crate or carrier box." What do we think of this? Should the government regulate how we deal with our animals when in a car? I think it's a good idea, a total pain but a good idea. It would save many animals from dying and would also save human lives. Any size dog that is loose in a vehicle becomes a projectile during an accident. The potential injury to people is very large. Even a small dog coming up over the seat at 55 mph could snap a human's neck. Then again, I'm also for seatbelts and helmets. You tend to be proactive when it comes to injuries after scraping body parts off the road over and over again. (Sorry, way too graphic!) So what's everyone else's two cents on this? |
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| I'm not sure that will go through. While it's a good idea, animals have been traveling freely in cars since cars were invented. I doubt even the police would/will ever pull someone over for a dog w/o a seatbelt/restraint.
BTW, yesterday we saw the coolest police chase. Black truck was warned to slow down, so black truck SPED UP!!! Husband and I just looked at each other. Then he raced into our neighborhood, police car behind him. Next thing we see is the police car coming out of the neighborhood thinking the black truck just circled it. TWO police cars go off in another direction. Black truck pulls out of a parking space (he was slick), and then went the opposite direction. Home free. We couldn't believe what we just saw...as the boys yahooooooooooooo'ed their victory. Mr. J and I stood there confused. |
| About it passing... well we rode freely in our cars until just a few years
ago, and now we have a seatbelt law. As far as restraining the dogs, I do think it is a good idea, but I'm not sure how I feel about it being a law. I am all for kids wearing helmets too, and under 13 I think it is a law here. However, none of the kids (except mine) around here bother with helmets, and nobody ever enforces the law here. I live in an accident prone area and have seen many accidents involving bikes, and many injuries that could have been avoided or lessened with a helmet. But then I also feel that this falls under 'responsible parenting'. Just like I feel like restraining your dog (or pet) falls under 'responsible ownership'. I think dogs should be restrained in the car, but I still don't know if it should be a law. I am getting a little weary of all the new laws that protect us from ourselves when we have a problem enforcing the laws that are already in place. Shellie |
| I just told my husband, and his response was:
...for BIG dogs too?! That's crazy. Especially since we have that net in the back of ours. (we have something that keeps the dog in the very back of our SUV, mostly because I'm known as the "nazi mom" ...and when I don't like something ...her jumping up front.... I will not tolerate it EVER) The net thing we have in the back of our car according to the above writing STILL wouldn't be good enough (since it is not a carseat, seatbelt, or crate). Anyways, we would never follow it. Our little one is in a carseat, but I can honestly say some of the reasoning is because it's a fashion statement (it was made for her, so she should have it because it's so cute and loves to look out the window). |
| I think a net dividing the front from the back would probably suffice the intent of the proposed bill. OF course, who knows how they would actually write the law...
They want to keep the dog from distracting the driver. Driving the motorhome, I am "fenced off" from the dog. This worked really well for Jake, but Mulligan has the ability to jump over that fence. I live in fear of him getting over the top into my lap as I push 33,000 pounds of Amercian Steel down the road. |
If the price of gas keeps going up I don't think they'll have to worry about passing a law, no one will be driving. 
America, land of the free............  A lot of men and women have given their lives for our freedom and I find it a dishonor to them to sit back and allow our "OWN" government to take them away from us.
As stated, we're being protected by our government from ourselves. They're so busy protecting us from us, that our borders were invaded from abroad. Had they been concentrating on things such as the DEFENSE of this great nation, instead of smoking, gays, dogs, cats, blacks, whites, grays, pigeon potty on bldgs., car seats for dogs, prayer in school, where its appropriate to hang the ten commandments, and on and on and on........ "perhaps" 911 and other horrible events wouldn't have happened. We've become a nation incapable of using common sense (so they think,)so they've found it necessary to make laws for everything. No, they can't enforce the ones they have, because they have too many. And, in order to enforce the ones they have, they have to create new ones. We all know, whether we do it or not, that it would be safer to contain our pets, but is it necessary to spend all the time and money to make it a law? Of course. Each law broken, is more money for whoever is benefiting from that law, the state and federal agencies. They know a lot of the laws are foolish, but as they say "money talks." Please don't misunderstand me, the laws giving equal rights to all, I believe in 100%, I just used the above to get my point across. We as citizen's of this nation should be able to use common sense and respect for one another to live together without so many laws. Everytime someone "feels" discreminated against they're running to the courts and the entire country suffers. It costs us more than freedom when these things happen$$$$$. Let the people VOTE, majority wins. ?? I believe in the Lord, He's my Salvation, my Savior. I pray that you do too. If not, we can still be friends and neighbors living peacefully amongst one another. Our forefathers came here for religious freedom. When I was in school we had a morning prayer and said the Pledge of Allegance. It seems to me that when the prayer was taken out of school, when abortion was made legal, the moral standards of this nation lowered. You can't keep making more laws. You have to go back to where the problem started, fix it and then carry on. Perhaps if we were to put the prayer back in the schools (for those that want to say one,) and value life again, as God expects us too, from the time of conception, instead of whatever stage man decides a fetus becomes life, just maybe we can show our leaders that we're not as incapable of things as they seem to think. Maybe they'd spend their time more wisely. We all have to work for the betterment of all, and can't leave it in the hands of just a few to do it for us. They can't do it. Their solution, make a new law.. No offense meant!!! I respect you regardless of our differances. My opinions only. |
| I know in California they have a law that your dog has to be tethered if it is riding in the back of a pickup. I still see dogs that aren't tethered and that just scares me to death! I can just imagine the driver taking the turn too fast or swerving to miss something and the dog just flying out. (Especially csonsidering how unstable and floppy Barney is while riding in the car!)
Personally, I think that the government is maybe making too many personal freedom laws, and that too many people feel 'discriminated' against and sue, etc. but I also think that a lot of these 'common sense' laws that people are trying to enact are becoming necessary since there is a definite lack in common sense amongst a lot of people these days. Either a 'I'll never get caught', or 'it won't affect me if I do this' kind of mentality is at play. There's no easy answer to any of these issues, not with the 'bigger' issues. And because America is a constantly changing, evolving society with more and more cultures becoming a main faction in the nation, you can't say that things were better when it was like this or that (say, prayer in school) because the makeup of America has changed so much, even in the last 10 years or so, that you can't compare today to then and expect it to be the same. Just my opinion... |
| So, let me get this straight: Pennsylvania, one of the Puppy Mill states, is going to require seat belts for dogs?
Maybe someone should take 11 year old Mark McCann to one of the commercial breeders and he could propose a law that would have a wide scale impact on canine well being. |
| Well said, Sue. |
Bailey's Mom wrote: So, let me get this straight: Pennsylvania, one of the Puppy Mill states, is going to require seat belts for dogs?
Maybe someone should take 11 year old Mark McCann to one of the commercial breeders and he could propose a law that would have a wide scale impact on canine well being. Lol. It sounds like Mark ought to take the Congress people there. At least the 11-year-old is thinking about safety and well-being of animals and only came up with his law from a contest! The legislators don't seem to be thinking about animals' well-being by knowingly letting puppy mills exist in the state. |
| I didn't mean to stir anything up - really. After I wrote that post
I started thinking. I realize this contest was probably for children, so at least they participated in the process, which I think is important. However, I thought about how riled up I got about a thread not long ago relating to conditions of puppy mills, and dogs that can be legally registered, and the inaction of the AKC and other goverining bodies, and so on and so on. I can think of many things, more important to me at least, that should be changed. That's not to say that restraining in a vehicle isn't important, it is. But when sickly dogs can be bred and the puppies sold who face a life of medical problems, aggression issues, and rescue upheavals, it seems to me that our priorities are confused. Of course I am only mentioning the dog issues as an example. The dog laws are only a very small fraction of the problems we have. Don't even get me started on rapists, pedophiles, murderers, theives and such. We are a constantly changing nation, and our laws have to change accordingly, I realize. I also realize these different issues fall under different jurisdictions- federal state and local laws. I guess I am not making much sense here. My only point is this: We have so many very important things that should be looked at and either changed or enforced, dog seatbelts take a backseat in my mind. Sorry to ramble, sorry it was so incoherent. Shellie |
| Mandatory crating of dogs in vehicles or mandatory seatbelt use for pets is really not such a bad idea. Some have commented that it is insignificant and that dogs and drivers have done just fine without them for years. Perhaps these are people who have "wonder dogs." Maybe the dog never moves around and maybe it would never try to move to the front of the vehicle... and of course it would never try to get the attention of the driver. Anyone who has a pet knows that for whatever reason when the pet decides to do the wrong thing it is always at the wrong time. Suddenly perfect Poochie without a restraint wants to be in the front of the vehicle. In the process of moving Poochie spills the hot coffee and now insists on trying to clean it up with its tongue. Terrible scenario because the driver must continue to be a safe driver. Goodness forbid the car phone starts to ring at this point or that a nearby trucker is falling asleep at the wheel or that a school bus is letting children off to run in every direction. You just can't have a jostling dog interrupting the driver. I live in a city where it is red light then green then red then green. You get it. At every red light inertia causes my dog to fall toward the front seats (when he's in the back) and every green light causes him to fall against the backs of the back seats. It's for these reasons that I won't travel with him unsecured. He doesn't sit down or lie down. Having him free to roam the vehicle just doesn't work. |
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