Subaru, CPS Team Up to Test Pet Crates and Carriers
Once again Subaru of America and the nonprofit Center for Pet Safety have joined forces to increase consumer awareness about products used to transport pets in vehicles. They partnered in 2013 to study the crashworthiness of pet safety harnesses. That study led to the development of safety-harness test protocols and guidelines as well as the creation of a voluntary CPS certification program for harness manufacturers.
This time the two have teamed up to conduct the 2015 Crate and Carrier Crashworthiness studies. Subaru will sponsor the studies, and CPS will conduct them.
Related: Tested: Clickit Sport Car Dog Harness
Some 56 percent of Americans travel with their pets, and 1 in 5 admit to traveling with them in their lap. Unrestrained pets can be dangerous distractors when driving and can also become projectiles in a crash, potentially harming themselves and human passengers. There are dozens of pet safety harnesses, crates and carriers on the market, but most of them have not been crash-tested.
These CPS-designed studies will look at the structural integrity of crates and carriers that claim to be crash-tested as well as examine crate connection options. As with the harness study, these studies will allow CPS to develop crash-test protocols and guidelines for crates and carriers.
“No performance standards or test protocols currently exist in the U.S. for pet crates or carriers, and while many pet safety product manufacturers claim to test their products, they can’t be substantiated without uniform test standards and protocols,” Lindsey Wolko, Center for Pet Safety founder and CEO, said in a statement.
The results will be available toward the end of the summer; CPS has already identified the crates and carriers it intends to study. For these studies, CPS also will work with passenger safety experts to help evaluate how the use of crates and carriers may affect human passengers.
Subaru says pet safety is important to the automaker because more than half of Subaru owners are pet owners. “We want to make pet parents aware of the proper safety measures they can take to help protect their pets,” Michael McHale, Subaru director of corporate communications, said in a statement. “Following the previous study with CPS, we were delighted to support this next stage in testing.”
