Pet Owners Urged to Use Caution

Regarding the photo in the Sept. 22 edition of The Times of Rex, the Labrador retriever who likes to ride in the back of owner Katy Corneille’s pickup truck:

Do Katy Corneille and other truck owners know that thousands of dogs all over the country die on our nation’s roads and freeways every year because owners think they are doing their pet a favor by letting it ride in the back of a pickup truck?

A fast take-off, a swerve, a fast stop and your dog flips out the back and onto the road. If the impact of hitting concrete doesn’t kill it, the oncoming car will.

Don’t forget, an animal does not have the same ability to “hang on” that we humans do.

Katy may “love her lab,” as her bumper sticker indicates, but if she keeps letting Rex ride in back, her beloved pet will eventually, I’m afraid, die a horrible death.

I understand there now is a harness device being sold that will secure the animal in the back of the truck. Better yet, if the animal can’t ride up front in the cab, leave it at home, safe and secure in the backyard.

Darlene Chappell

PASADENA