1. Protect your dog.  You wear a seat belt, your kids wear a seat belt, your pets should be belted in with a harness.
2. Protect yourself.  If not restrained, your dog will become a projectile in an accident and cause great injury to the human occupants—at 30 mph, a 60-pound dog can cause an impact of 2,500 pounds.
3. Protect emergency aid workers.  A terrified or injured animal is unpredictable and could keep paramedics from helping or might even injure them.  Police might choose to shoot your dog if they fear for their safety.
4. Keep your dog from running away after an accident.  An unrestrained dog could run off in fear or run into traffic and get hurt.
5. Prevent distraction of the driver, blocking of the driver’s view, or interference with operation of the vehicle.
6. Prevent your dog from being ejected from the car or jumping out the window.
7. Prevent your dog from jumping out when you stop and open the car door.
8. Prevent car sickness and stress.  Your dog will feel more secure and won’t have to keep bracing himself for the movement of the car.
9. Prevent your dog from sticking its head out the window where it could be injured.
10. Prevent damage to the interior of your car from an uncontrolled dog.

Here are some impressive visuals illustrating why your dog should be restrained when in your car.  (No dogs were harmed in these crash tests.)  The tests used weighted dog dummies just like they do for crash tests for humans.

• The first video shows what happens to an unrestrained dog.
• The second shows what happens to a pet in a crate & a dog on a leash.
• Third shows what happens to a pet in a crate oriented differently, how flimsy those car barriers are, and an unrestrained in the back window of a car.

Climbing

• Lucy the dog could have ended up just being another dog that died on the streets of Puerto Rico after being hit by a car, but she was lucky.  She was adopted by some wonderful people.  With their help, a wheelchair, and conditioning similar to the conditioning marathon runners practice, Lucy became the first disabled dog to climb Mt. Washington in New Hampshire.

Driving

• Have you been hearing about the results of that AAA survey on the hazards of unrestained pets in cars?  Turns out the survey is inacurate— the statistics and hazards are actually worse.

Parole Hearing

• In Alabama, the canine victim was present for the parole hearing of his attacker.  Louis the dog still has the physical scars from being set on fire and beaten with a shovel by Juan Daniels who was denied parole.

Goat

• First there was a male goat and a female dog, who are best friends, wandering loose around a wedding chapel, then there was the threat of  goat rustling charges, then add their friend Lucky, a tripod dog, and you’ve got one of the oddest rescue stories I’ve heard.

Seals

• In Washington, a dog swims after seals, a boy paddles after the dog, the boy rescues the dog, the seals swim after the boy and dog.

Dog Park Violence

• The man who repetedly stabbed a woman’s dog at Fort Funston in San Francisco has been identified and is expected to be arrested.  Lenny the dog survived the attack, but lost his spleen.

• Keith Elgin Shepherd, the off-duty police officer who shot and killed Bear-Bear, a husky, at Quail Run Dog Park in Severn, Maryland was charged with two misdemeanors and that is only after public outcry. He claims he shot Bear-Bear with a hollow point bullet after the dog attacked his German Shepherd.  His German Shepherd apparently received no injuries.  Bear-Bear’s family & friends say he was not an aggressive dog and the woman who initially rescued and foster Bear-Bear agrees.

Bin Lady

• Mary Bale, the wack-job woman caught on camera dumping a cat in a trash bin, is being investigated by the RSPCA and may face charges. The cat was trapped for 15 hours until her person heard her cries.

Ely himself owns a dog and says he feels compassion for Fester’s family, but thinks they should be held responsible for the accident. And on the surface, I agree with him. But, I also see pets as part of the family and it’s hard to imagine someone suing a family for damage to your car if you struck and killed their child through no fault of your own.