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Pick-up Trucks and Dogs:A Bad Combination |
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- Eliot Kaplan, DVM -
It should be against the law for dogs to ride in the back of pick-up trucks. There is nothing anyone can say to change my opinion on this point. Over the years I have seen the direct results of dogs riding in this manner, and it is not pretty. Broken legs, smashed ribs, dogs literally hanging themselves by the neck and strangulating, the skin ripped off half their bodies, dying agonizing deaths - need I say more?
But I still see dogs riding in the back of pick-up trucks on a daily basis when I am driving around. I have asked dog owners what they were thinking to allow this to happen with their beloved family pet when that same pet is brought to me badly injured and sometimes even dead. Believe it or not, the typical response that I hear from the owner is that the owner felt the dog would know better than to jump out of a speeding truck or that the owner felt the dog was more coordinated and would have been able to stay in the truck while the owner was negotiating a tight turn!! Even when dogs are harnessed in the back of the truck I have seen problems, such as strangling. It is just not safe.
Dogs are extremely intelligent in their own way. But they cannot be counted on to reason out the dangers of falling or jumping out of a moving truck. Anyone who thinks otherwise is deluding himself or herself. Dogs count on their owners to protect them - sometimes from themselves. If dog owners choose to put their lives or safety on the line, then that is their own choice. But no one should do that to his or her dog. The dog does not have a choice. |
