The Center for Pet Safety and Subaru of America have teamed up to test the effectiveness of pet harnesses for automobiles. Early this month, the study was released, revealing some disconcerting news about how safe pet harnesses really are.
Currently there are no performance standards for U.S. pet travel products, making manufacturer safety claims extraneous without benchmarks to measure against, reports .
Out of the eleven harnesses tested, all of which promised crash protection, only seven passed the basic strength test. says that those seven were then crash testedusing a series of life-like dog dummies at 25, 45, and 75 pounds.
Many products were deemed failures as they let the dog become a projectile or be released from the restraint.
The best-performing harness throughout testing was , according to . The harness kept the dog from launching off the seat and was rated the highest for protecting other passengers in the vehicle. Each of the pet safety manufacturers were invited to watch the testing and many have worked to improve their products using the results, reports .
The Center for Pet Safety is working toward creating a safety harness standard by the end of the year.
(Photos: Courtesy of the Center for Pet Safety. Note: only dog dummies were tested.)
