Man, just don't hit a bump......

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Dogs can continue to cruise unrestrained down Maryland highways, as a result of a bill passed Tuesday (2/17/2009) in the state senate. Maryland senators voted 30-17 against a bill that would have required owners to harness or cage their pets when transporting them in the back of open trucks.

"If this bill passes, Rover won't go for a ride," (Sen. Lowell) Stoltzfus said. "You're going to have a lot of unhappy dogs." Yet a minority of other senators argued against that notion, saying that a dead or injured dog wouldn't be a happy camper, either.

Proponents of the bill cited a Humane Society of the United States report that shows 100,000 dogs are killed each year after jumping out of, or being thrown from, the backs of open vehicles.

Maryland is one of 25 states that do not have any provisions regulating animals traveling in cars or trucks. No state, though, requires pets to be constrained in a harness or any other apparatus while riding in a vehicle.

Credit: zootoo.com