It is Thanksgiving Eve and I first two  dogs barking loudly in the parking lot outside of my bank and drug-store. I started to drive home but decided to go and comfront them first. After having got bitten about 6 months ago while offering a contractor at our condo complex water for his dog on a hot summer day (I kept my distance then as well but she sprung out on a bungie cord feriously determined to protect "her," but actually my parking lot), this time, I stayed a good 20 feet back. I could not see any leads on them but comforted them with my sympathic counseling "doggie talk." Pretty soon, they stopped barking, started to listen, and one even laid down. Eventually, I left but called my fiance to tell him that I planned to call the police so these dogs would be safe- and that no one would be hurt if they jumped out onto the road, Well, he talked me out of it, and then the guy came back before I could get a license. Although one cannot tell everything about a person from his or her dress, he was a man in his circa 30's and had a pony-tail down the middle of his back. Instantly, as a disabled attorney, I thought "He has no respect for the law. I have to protect those dogs." I could not see the license from the distance but I still called it in. But now I feel HORRIBLE after reading all of these posts because they just re-enforce that I should have trusted my gut reaction/first instinct that I needed to call a non-emergency police # and report. Next time I will. My own service dog died several years ago because the woman who stold her when I was in the hospital would not keep the windows up- and even though she jumped out several times before, the 3rd time she jumped to run after another dog, she was rang over by a car. I also lost my beloved Lhalsa Apso when she dashed out of my side when she saw a Black cat and was dead within minutes when a doctor hit her coming back from UCSF. Those 2 deaths could have also been prevented with restraints and I am sure going to worry tonight about a situation I could have made safe but handed my power and common-sense over to someone else. I should have know better. SAFETY FIRST. (Thank you.)

Thank you for the links guys - very useful!

I would recommend the website, www.barkbuckleup.com. They test and rate the various safety restraint systems.

This is by far the best seatbelt system I have used and I have tried several.
http://usak9outfitters.com/autosafetygear.htm

It even come in VERY large sizes.

This is a great and timely post (with holiday travelling fast-approaching). Perhaps people could also include the links to sites that have the buckles/seats/harnesses they've mentioned?

Ingrid, have the buckle put back in the floor of the vehicle. There are tabs that have the "male" end to the "female" section of a seat belt. There is also one that uses a zip line that goes from one side of the vehicle to the other, overhead. Yes, the barrier keeps them away from you and it will keep them from flying through the windshield. But they can escape through a broken side or back window.

Google:

Petbuckle Travel Kit (has harness and buckle tab)

Auto Zip Line Seat Belt Harness (has harness, zip line, and buckle tab)

Personal story here:

It was 6pm at the end of a very long and busy Friday, and I was looking forward to heading home.  However, I was stuck at the clinic due to a very nasty car accident about 5 minutes from our clinic that had shut down the freeway. I'm sitting up front, chatting with a receptionist when a police officer opens the front door and his partner brings in a very dead and beat/cut up looking labrador. He was somehow involved in the accident, but the officers leave, promising to come back with more information. A quick triage later I call a code and the vet, who is down the block at the coffee shop. After intubating the dog and starting a central line (we had a policy at that clinic that unidentified animals in an emergency are treated like humans in an emergency-we eat the cost if we have to), giving drugs, CPR and shock doses of fluids, I manage to revive the dog in time for the vet to show up (at this point the receptionist, office manager, and I were the only ones there to handle the emergency). We x-ray the dog because it has awful lung sounds-one lung is collapsed and numerous ribs are broken. By 8pm we have a chest tube in, and are getting ready to transfuse the dog with universal blood from the receptionist's doggy, when the police show up. The lab had been an unrestrained passenger in the back of a woman's car-she had been exsanguinated by her own dog and died. The dog had actually passed through the front window of the vehicle and had been run over by another vehicle.

Sort of happy ending: The woman's son contacted us that night and told us to do everything possible to save the dog. He ended up getting transfered to a specialty practice for more blood transfusions, was eventually stabilized and underwent surgery to fix a broken pelvis and clean up the messy rib fractures. He had to have a lung lobectomy a week later due to necrosed tissue. He survived, and is doing well (I stayed in touch with the family). The bills totalled about 15 grand for the dog.

Bottom line: one life lost, plus 15k worth of medical debt. One single doggy seatbelt could've changed everything.

Dr. Khuly my work is done for today! An ounce of prevention and all that...

I can see all of your points, and I really hate to see dogs on owners laps or perched with their front feet on the window, but at the same time I feel like there are exceptions.  I have Great Danes and I drive a Honda Element.  The seats are out in the back for the dogs and I have a barrier between the two front seats to protect us all.  The barrier keeps them in the back for their safety and so that they are not a distraction to me while driving.  But there is also no way to buckle them in back there and no crate big enough is going to fit in there.  I think it's great that you all have these restraint devices, but for someone like me, the barrier I have is really the only option I have.

I also worry that if something like this is legislated that people will attach something to the dog's collar to provide restraint in the car.  The poor dog could get serious whiplash even if the driver stops short at a corner...

There's a wide variety of seat belt harnesses out there. I've not had much luck with the ones where the seat belt slides through the harness. Major PITA for me and the dog. Instead, I got a padded harness that has a D-ring. A short tab/traffic lead has the seat belt fed through the loop and the clip is on the harness. Metal clip, of course. Works great. I got this a number of years ago and, after a quick search, I see they've improved on it a lot with the prices staying fairly decent. As others have said, it's not just a restraining device while driving down the road. It's for when an accident does happen. The dog can't run away and get lost, dying alone from its treatable injuries. The paramedics don't have to have the dog shot because it won't let them near you.

We let a dog ride in the open bed of a truck once and only once. We had gone out of town and a friend kept him for us. However, he kept him in a pen with an un-neutered male goat. The two of them got along great (unusual for a male goat and a dog to get along). But oh did the dog stink! So in the back of the truck he went. He did great for the 1 mile trip to the house but as soon as it came to a stop, he jumped out. He scraped the bottom of his chin and jaw from tooth to throat. Road rash, basically.

I just don't see this as Nanny-state stuff.

Yes, it's common sense that should not have to be legislated, but clearly -- based on what I see driving, and a few wrecks I worked when I still ran on an ambulance -- it needs to be.  One can't legislate common sense, but one can use the force of law on people who don't exercise it and endanger others by their actions.

Unrestrained dogs, are in the case of a crash, dangers to the themselves, the human occupants of the vehicle, and emergency workers.  If ejected, or if they bolt when a door is opened or a window breaks, they can cause additional crashes by running in traffic.

Dogs riding in the driver's lap -- or sitting on his shoulder, head, arm (yep, seen 'em all) -- are not just a hazard in a crash, they will cause a crash.

I'm against seat belt laws and helmet laws -- for humans past the age of majority.  But belting in kids,  restraining animals, goggles for motorcyclists -- these are legitimate areas for legal mandate.

Elizabeth: I have no excuse. It's a bad habit, keeping them unbuckled. I promise I'll go shopping tomorrow for Sophie's seatbelt and I'll start buckling them both in.

Oh--and in my car the front passenger's airbag is only supposed to deploy if there's someone sitting on the seat. I've been told that if the seatbelt light doesn't blink and scream at me when my dogs sit there it's because they're not heavy enough to trigger the mechanism (they weight 20 lbs each). Anyone know if that's true?

My dogs ride loose in the back of my pickup. I do have a canopy so there's no chance of them jumping  or falling out. I still worry some about them and what would happen in case of an accident, but two giant crates just don't fit under there.  Luckily my state made 'unrestrained cargo' a serious offence about two years ago after a loose I-beam fell out of a truck and killed the driver of the vehicle behind it. Loose dogs count as unrestrained cargo too, but in my area at least, it doesn't seem like police are enforcing it at all.

my dogs love to ride in the car. They wear special car harnesses that clip into the seatbelt just for that purpose. They are very well behaved even if I didn't clip them in, but if I had to stop short, I wouldn't want a small dog hitting the seat or dashboard and getting hurt.

the car doesn't move until everyone's seatbelts dogs, husband and kids/passengers alike at buckled in. Too many years on a rescue squad to be careless about that detail.

Clover - It's not that way in every province, no law in Nova Scotia that requires you to have your dog in a crate or seatbelt.

Dr Khuly, I am very surprised to hear you do not buckle up your dogs. Having the seatbelt handy,  hmmm how fast can you actually get it on your dogs should you be faced with an impending accident?  You do buckle up your son I assume....

I've been told it took 9 years of lobbying & reintroduction of the bill (now law) to impose fine to allowing loose pets in the open p/u truck bed. I congratulate the animal welfare/societies that stuck with it.

And I believe there is a minimum requirement for shelter (dog houses) provided to outdoor canines/animals passed this past year, again I applaud the animal welfare folks!

Ironically, these very same animal welfare/lobbiests/societies have stood silent and turned blind eye to the knowledge of the practice of veterinary-administered "inhumane" death for money, mistakenly called *euthansia*, and I ask...simply one word...WHY???

"Pocket's Story from New Hampshire"
http://clik.to/scotty

Besides the horrible scenarios already listed, consider the effects of powerful airbags, which we know are dangerous to children and even adults of very small stature.   Most pets are below the minimum weight suggested for sitting behind a front seat airbag.

This is the reason that my cat rides in a carrier equipped with built-in seatbelt loops, BELTED into the center of the back seat.   Yes, we listen to meows of protest all the way to the vet, but if she's meowing, we know she's still breathing.  That is better than the possibility of being squashed by an airbag.

The best investment I have is a car seat for Socks.. It gets hooked into the back seatbelt, and he gets hooked into it.. It's a great thing, as in the summer I drive a convertable, and winter the SUV.. One problem I have is I drop him off at my parents in the a.m. We live in NY, and in the winter it's too cold to put him in the back.. It's nice to know if I stop short, or am in an accident, he's as safe as can be expected.. He likes it, as he can see out..

Here in Canada it is the same- your pets must be restrained by seatbelt or crate, or you risk a $200 fine.

My uncle is a paramedic and he said that he has been to many accidents where the dog has actually decapitated the driver.  He has also been to many accidents where the dog has been thrown through the front windshield and run over by the vehicle.  Since hearing him describe these accidents I have purchased seat belts for both of my dogs and they wear them for about 3/4 or more of our car trips.  Dog seat belts not only protect the animal but also the human passengers in the vehicle.  

My dog wears a seatbelt every time we're in the car. I just use a harness that I got at Petco. It's comfortable and lined in fleece and the seatbelt buckles right through it. Also, he can wear it for general use when I'm actually at the pet store.

Really, seatbelts, car seats, or carriers just make good sense. I can't think of a good reason not to use them.