It was a very good year for both Center for Pet Safety and pet owners. We are working hard to build our mission on your behalf. Here’s a recap of some of the things we’ve been working on:
Our Work Saves Lives: We recently learned that since CPS kicked off our first study in 2013, there has been a 25% increase of pet owners that restrain their pets during travel! CPS is always interested in hearing from potential sponsors and strategic partners that have an interest in pet safety to support an educational and awareness initiative. Your support will save lives.
2018 Subaru Safest Spots to Secure your Pet: CPS and Subaru partnered to educate pet owners about the safest spots to secure pets in 3 row SUVs. We are grateful for Subaru of America’s support for this important educational initiative.
New V3 Test Dog Design: During 2018 we worked with a group of volunteer engineers to redesign our test dogs. We are very pleased with the design of our V3 surrogate and completed testing at University of Michigan. CPS is currently working to fund the rest of the design time (for additional sizes) and fabrication costs. Our goal is to provide a full set of test dogs to the University of Michigan so that brands can conduct due diligence testing as they work toward certification. Ensuring standardization of the test dogs is important as we move our mission forward. CPS wishes to thank all of those people who so generously donated their time and effort to this project.
University Research Project: CPS received sponsorship for a research project as we work toward our V4 test dog. We are working with a University on the West Coast. The data collected will feed into our future test dog design. We anticipate wrapping up the first phase of this project in early 2019 and continuing to work through the design efforts over the next year. We thank our sponsor for their generous support for this research program.
Piper’s Walk: We are grateful to Nudh Suanpan for sharing the story about her beloved dog, Piper, with us. Nudh is a courageous young woman who is working to educate pet owners on the importance of travel restraints for pets. She launched the first annual Piper’s Walk and raised funding to support CPS product testing after her dog was killed in a crash. We invited Nudh to attend the testing at MGA Research in Manassas, Virginia. It was an eye opening experience for her.
CPS Certified Program: CPS has been counseling brands around the globe who are working toward certification. We do quite a bit of knowledge sharing with industry to ensure they have the information they need as they work to develop or improve products headed for certification. It is quite time consuming, but it is worth it when we see significant improvement in the test lab. We also anticipate new harness, crate and carrier certifications in 2019….as well as our first international certification!
We’ve also recently recertified updated products and will be posting the test results very soon.
Consumer Advisory Board: In early 2018 CPS welcomed our Consumer Advisory Board. The Board is made up of pet owners who have been impacted by pet products and help to guide our mission.
Looking ahead to 2019:
CPS will continue to educate pet owners about pet travel and product selection options. Our PAWS UP for Safety program is scheduled to make a pilot debut through various outlets this year.
We have a new study planned, and will gather enough data to publish 3 new Safety Standards and ratings systems by the end of the year.
Our organization will be launching a new investigative project in the coming months. More details to come!
….And a main area of focus in 2019 is on Health, Safety and Wellness. We’ll be announcing the details of this project in 1Q of 2019.
Thank you to all of our supporters out there, especially those who have provided financial support. Your donations are much appreciated and are greatly needed to keep this mission going and benefit pets and the people who love them.
Wishing you a safe and Happy New Year!
The Center for Pet Safety Team
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