Doggie Seat Belt Law

If you have a mid-size or larger dog some kind of restraint is important. Not necessarily for its safety but for the safety of you and/or passengers. If I'm traveling at 50 mph and have to stop suddenly - or run into something - I'll have a 65 lb furry missile flying into my back at 50 mph. That isn't good for me or the dog.


I don't have a problem with the restraint enforcement either. Of course this assumes it doesn't include public hunting lands. You can't cover much ground with an 8 foot lead.

Do we really need the government involved here?

You can argue that the govt. doesn't need to get involved in the car restraint issue. Your car, your dog, your body.

The restraint on public grounds is certainly in the public domain and the appropriate governmental unit certainly can enact and enforce reasonable limits. I would expect that the reason they are proposing the new ordinance is that pet owners haven't acted responsibly in the past. I have no complaint with that type of ordinance.

I personnally do not like government involvment in areas like this.

My dog travels in the crate when we go anywhere. It is a lot safer for her and everyone else in the car.

As far as a law to restrain the dog, I can see the point, although I don't think govt. involvement is the way to go. If some places want to make talking on cell phones illegal for distraction reasons, a dog can be distracting if you are driving and it climbs over you to see out the window, like I see all too often. I wish people would care more about their dogs, but I am asking a little too much.


And, I doubt that a person can hunt in the city limits of Santa Fe, so the 8 ft. lead wouldn't be a problem.

Originally posted by omega58
My dog travels in the crate when we go anywhere. It is a lot safer for her and everyone else in the car.

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Absolutely. Our dogs all travel in crates. The one exception is when my lab is put in our Explorer where I can't fit her crate. She is still restrained to the back area though for safety.

I have a buddy that took his dog everywhere with him. Real laid back mixed breed....about 50 lbs. He would sit on the front seat most times. One day while driving through traffic, a guy with a lab in the back of a pickup is driving along next to my buddy and his dog happened to be in the back this time. For some reason this lab and my buddy's dog decided they didn't like each other and start barking at each other. The pickup speeds up and pulls ahead a little bit....my buddy's dog climbed OVER the driver's seat into my buddy's lap and he ends smashing into a concrete light pole. Both he and the dog get busted up and the car was basically totaled.

Now if he had restrained the dog, this wouldn't even had been an issue. After that happened, I started crating our dogs every time. I did it most times, but not always....after that, every time.