The Legislative Corner – Laws and Rules to Protect Animals in Motor Vehicles
The Legislative Corner – Laws and Rules to Protect Animals in Motor Vehicles
If you own a dog or a cat, chances are high that your furry friend rode as a passenger in your vehicle on at least a few occasions. You may have let them roam free in the backseat, permitted them to ride shotgun, or secured them in a crate, but are there laws in place that determine how pets are supposed to ride in the car?
One survey sponsored by AAA and Kurgo Pet Products found that well over half of respondents had participated in at least one distracting behavior while driving with their dogs:
- 52% had petted their dog while driving
- 17% allowed their dog to sit in their lap while driving
- 13% gave food or treats to their dog while driving
- 4% acknowledged playing with their dog while driving
However, only 16% of owners used some form of restraint for the dog in the vehicle. What is even more surprising is that 83% of people responding to the survey agreed that having an unrestrained dog in a moving car can be dangerous.
Although politicians have historically avoided legislation on this topic, some states are using the law to protect people and their pets while out on the road:
- In New Jersey, officers can stop a driver they believe is improperly transporting an animal. Tickets range from $250 – $1,000 per pet, and a driver can face a disorderly person’s offense under animal-cruelty laws. In the past, state officers have cited drivers with dogs hanging their heads out of windows, drivers of pick-up trucks with unleashed dogs traveling in the truck bed, drivers with cats resting on their dashboards, and even one driver with a bird perched on their shoulder.
- Hawaii openly prohibits drivers from having any unrestrained animal in their car. In the “Aloha” State, you can be fined $97 dollars for driving with a dog in your lap and $57 if the animal is unrestrained in a moving vehicle.
- In Arizona, Connecticut, and Maine, distracted-driving laws have been used to charge drivers with pets on their laps.
The goal of these laws is not to save the lives of our pets; the main focus is to protect human lives. Unrestrained pets can become a distraction and distractions cause accidents. In a collision at 50 mph, an unrestrained 10-pound dog will hit you with about 500 pounds of force – more than enough to cause serious damage, or even death, to both you and your dog. This amount of gravitational force could also pull a dog out of its own collar or tether, depending on the restraint design and the crash circumstances.
TASP knows first hand of two motor vehicle collisions where dogs were ejected from vehicles: one in which a 15lb. dog was restrained with a tether to its collar in the back seat, and one in which a 6lb. dog was riding loose on the front seat. Interestingly, the tethered dog was actually killed, and the loose dog survived but with significant, life-altering injuries. Neither outcome would be what we would want for our pet.
It is clear that there is little chance of predicting what can happen when we depart for a ride with our pet. Risk and uncertainty can never be completely eliminated from our lives, and we need to ask ourselves, as the guardians of our pets, what we can do to keep risk to a minimum for their sake. Maintaining situational awareness and concentrating on the road is the duty of every driver. When we take our pet for a ride, we would be wise to remember our obligation to our pet, our passenger and our fellow travelers and focus on the task at hand.
What do you think about laws that restrict how your pet can ride in your motor vehicle? And, in the absence of formal laws, what do you think YOU can do to reduce the risk of death or injury when your pet goes for a ride with you?
