Center for Pet Safety Announces Restraint Testing Study
The nonprofit organization, 501(c)(3), The Center for Pet Safety, is undertaking a study that will define what safe travel for companion animals and their owners truly means. At the present time, animal restraints are not held to specific safety standards and manufacturer testing is not a requirement.
Lindsey Wolko, founder and chairman of the Center for Pet Safety, shared, “With tens of millions of dogs traveling with their families every year, the use of pet travel safety restraints is at an all-time high. Safety advocates, travel associations and now law enforcement agencies are recommending or mandating the use of pet safety restraints. But how does the consumer know that the pet harnesses and crates actually protect their pet in the case of an accident? There are currently no official standards to measure performance success, nor are manufacturers required to test their products for this category of pet product. So who says 'safe' is safe?"
Using the results of data collection, scientific testing, and analysis, the Center for Pet Safety plans to author studies of specific types of pet travel “safety” devices and then develop criteria and test protocols to support safe performance. The organization is an independent one, as The Center for Pet Safety is not associated with any pet product manufacturer, so pet owners will want to take notice of the results.
Grant funding is being sought to continue the independent research. A pilot study done by the Center for Pet Safety in 2011 showed a 100 percent failure rate of four popular animal travel harnesses that were crashed tested according to conditions of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 213 for child safety seats.
In 2011 the The Center for Pet Safety was founded in and is a registered 501(c)3 research organization dedicated to companion animal and consumer safety. The idea developed from eight years of pet product industry and consumer research.
For more information please visit http://www.centerforpetsafety.org.
Lynne Harris
#1
June 20th, 2012 7:27 pm
I adopt and care for a number of rescued stray dogs - 8 to 12 at any one time. The"dogmobile" carries them all to our off-road play and run sites, with the 2 (who fight with the others) in the front with me and the others are loose in the seat-less back of the van behind a bulkhead of 3/4" plywood. I'm very much looking forward to the study results when available. Hope the grant funding comes through.
