Sleepypod, a Los Angeles-based company takes the safety of your fur babies very seriously and recently put the pet carriers they manufacture to the test. Their goal was to make cats and dogs traveling in a car as safe as the human kids in the family.
Sleepypod decided to test how well their pet carriers uphold in an automobile accident. The company’s objective was to meet the same safety standards set for children’s car seats.
“A lot of people think of their pets as children, so we thought that was a good standard to aim for,” said Greg Mote, Sleepypod co-owner and designer.
Japan Automobile Research Institute (JARI) put the pet carriers in simulated car crashes at 20 mph, 25 mph and 30 mph. The tests showed that both the cat and dog pet carriers could withstand crashes of up to 25 mph.
Those results were positive, but standards for children’s car seats say they must withstand an auto crash of 30 mph, so Sleepypod went back to their design center and made adjustments to improve their product.
The new versions of the Sleepypod and Sleepypod Mini will be launched in May. Mote told The Cat Channel that he is confident the company has reached its goal of meeting the safety standards set for child seats, but he will not know for sure until the products are retested.
Testing of the new products will be conducted within the next few months. Currently there are no specific safety requirements for pet carriers.
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