Sorry Buddy, Your Dog Cannot Drive The Car!
Posted: Saturday, August 06, 2011
by Gerry Charbonneau
http://nibblednews.typepad.com
" I used to look at (my dog) Smokey and think, 'If you were a little smarter, you could tell me what you were thinking', and he'd look at me like he was saying, 'If you were a little smarter, I wouldn't have to.'" --- Fred Jungclaus
Imagine this situation. You are sitting at a red light waiting to make a left hand turn. It is an unusually warm summer day. The beads of perspiration are playfully and slowly trickling down the back of your neck. Your shirt has absorbed as much sweat as the high priced paper towel might have done.
The oncoming lane of vehicles is light for this time of the day. You casually glance over your right shoulder towards the curb lane to check for any oncoming traffic. There are no pedestrians or other vehicles impeding your making the turn.
At that moment you notice that the operator of the vehicle beside you in the non turning lane is not a human being afterall but rather a large, shaggy headed bouvier with its left paw hanging freely outside the driver's side of the curb laned vehicle while its tongue hangs freely from its drooling mouth.
You do a visual double take hoping that you are not suffering from some form of temporary dementia or weather induced heat stroke. As that vehicle continues onward past your own vehicle you notice that a hand now tugs on the dog's leash and yanks it towards the passenger side of the car.
To you it seemed that the frisky but very large puppy had jumped up on the driver's lap, blocked his field of vision and commanded the driver's side of the car while it had stopped for the red light.
This incident could have proven fatal if the dog decided to leap onto its master's lap while the vehicle was moving. Fortunately no one was injured. I'm certain the driver of the car did not learn how to become a more careful driver from the experience.
The warmer summer conditions cause many people to abandon their usually dependable common sense notions. People want to bond closer with their animals and fail to accept the fact the an unharnessed animal bounding freely in the front seat of their cars could lead to traffic fatalities, injuries and possibly death.
One driver with a Ford sport utility vehicle had two large doberman roaming freely and unfettered inside the passenger compartment of the vehicle. The windows of the SUV were opened and when the vehicle stopped at a red light one of the dogs leapt through the window.
The large dog immediately proceeded to attack a female pedestrian who was out and about walking her poodle. The driver managed to safely stop his vehicle and restrain the attacking dog before any serious injury could occur to either the pedestrian or the smaller , startled animal.
If the dogs in the above situations were chihuahua sized then the matter would have been both amusing and entertaining. In these instances however the size and weight of the dogs created a potential physical threat to both fellow motorists and innocent pedestrians in the immediate vicinity.
Dogs, large or small, should be outfitted with some type of physical restraint mechanism which would effectively limit their range of movement in a moving vehicle. This type of restraint appartaus should be given the same status that a child restraint seat has for youngsters who travel in the family vehicle with their parents.
Drivers who allow their pets to roam freely inside their vehicles should be fined as heavily as those parents who do not ensure their infants are properly strapped into their special infant seats. They should also receive demerit points for not driving in a responsible and safe manner.
Children and four legged animals obviously do not fall within the same category of passenger safety. But the amount of physical damage that a wildly careening , 90 pound, out of control animal can produce during an auto accident warrants that some type of physically restraining harness or travel compartment be used to safely transport the animal from one destination point to another.
Letting your family pet roam freely in the back of your pickup truck is not a responsible way to show you care for man's best friend. Small children and animals depend upon adults to provide due care, caution and concern for their safety and well being.
To provide less than the best care for them should be considered criminal. Monetary fines and demerit points might help to educate those folks who publicly flaunt their indifference and ignore their responsibilities.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Hi Gerry.
I couldn't agree with you more. I've often seen dogs in the beds of pickup trucks and just cringed inside at the thought of what would happen to that poor dog if the driver had to make a panic stop.
I enjoyed the quote that opened your article. Very nice all around.
Hugs,
DianneThank you Dianne for writing. Much appreciated.
People somehow believe their pets are extensions of themselves and do not bother to protect them adequately. How many pick up trucks have had to stop suddenly and have the animals riding free in the back of the vehicle go flying through the air at a great velocity and end up on the side of the road injured.
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