(These are notable, true stories from the mainstream press. Whether heartwarming, funny, perplexing, or touching, they all serve to remind us how dogs are so entwined in our lives, and sometimes in unique and unusual ways.)
I don't mean “dummy” as in “dumb”, I mean “dummy” as in crash test dummies. Subaru and the Center for Pet Safety in Reston, Va., are together working on a new line of pet restraint systems and to test them they need to do what auto and safety experts have been doing all along: crash the cars and measure the effects. On dummies. Dog crash test dummies.
They made a 45-pound border collie, a 25-pound terrier mix, and a 75-pound golden retriever. (Which got me thinking, “What…they don’t care about my Aussies?!?”)
Bark Buckle Up, a pet safety advocacy group claims “A 60-pound pet becomes a 2,700 pound projectile, at just 35 mph.” And according to the Wall St. Journal claims a calculation by motorist-advocacy group AAA, shows that a 10-pound unrestrained dog in a 30 mph crash will exert around 300 pounds of force.
I remember when cars didn’t have seatbelts and when they did, people often didn’t use them. With an estimated 85% of drivers now using seatbelts, maybe the day isn’t far off when we’ll all buckle up our pets as well.
Let's hear from our readers: Do you buckle up your pets?
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