A few months later, with Maggie belted into the harness, Wolko had to slam on her brakes. Maggie went flying, crashing into the back of the front seat.
“Because of the design, her legs were hogtied and thrown forward,” Wolko told The Huffington Post. “Luckily she wasn’t hurt or paralyzed, but it took her a while to heal.”
Maggie suffered a strained spine and strained hips. She was on painkillers and confinement for weeks.
To make matters worse, Wolko had to pay all of the vet bills out of her own pocket. The harness manufacturer was not accountable for any of Maggie’s injuries.
Wolko, shocked, learned that pet restraints aren’t regulated by any government agency and manufacturers’ claims of safety weren’t put to the test by any outside organization.
So she founded the nonprofit watchdog Center for Pet Safety, which has since conducted crash tests showing most pet restraints — even those claiming to be crash-tested — don’t work in sudden maneuvers.
To demonstrate the problem, the Center for Pet Safety performed a crash test in 2011 on four popular brands of pet restraints, using crash test dummy dogs.
“We had a 100 percent failure rate, and a lot of those products are still on the market,” Wolko said.
The results stirred enough of a ruckus for Subaru to catch wind. Because more than half of Subaru owners have pets, the carmaker agreed to sponsor additional crash tests for Center For Pet Safety.
Of 29 pet restraints tested since the alliance, 25 failed. You can see some of the tests in the video below. Be forewarned that some of the clips may be unsettling to animal lovers.
To read more on this story, click here: Most Pet Car Safety Products Can Endanger Your Dog, Cat And You
