Breakaway Collars Save Lives

Deetz added our Crystal to his In Loving Memory slideshow. Crystal is in such good company there, including Deetz's two brothers Gizmo and Sharkie.

As many of you are aware, Deetz's brother Sharkie died recently after their collars became tangled during their play. We wanted to post this earlier, but we decided to wait a bit out of respect for Sharkie's family and to heal a little from our own loss four days earlier.

We were surprised when we started reading the comments on Sharkie's post. We had never heard of this happening before but it is evidently more common than we would have thought. Each year thousands of dogs are injured or choked to death due to dog collar accidents. That frightens Jan. It undoubtedly does you too.We dogs love to wrestle and even little Merci wrestles hearty with Sam. It never occurred to Jan that this could be so dangerous. She now wonders whether this is what happened to our 3 rabies tags. (See Ban Bell Tags.) The one Merci is wearing now is round instead of bell-shaped. She is so glad they changed the shape.

We found this video on the dangers of regular collars. This does not show the type of accident that happened to Deetz and Sharkie. In this video, one dog grabs the other by the collar to drag it around in play, demonstrating the potential for a dog to get his jaw caught in a collar and be unable to get loose. (Don't worry, this doesn't happen in the video.)



If the video doesn't play, click here.

Jan was unaware breakaway collars were sold for dogs, although she used to buy them for her cats. She said if she had the funds we would all be wearing a breakaway collar! But we'll have to wait. However, we hope you will do a little research and purchase one for each of your dogs and cats.

The leash attaches to two rings, one on either side of the buckle so the collar is secure while you walk the dog. But when the dog is not on a leash, if pressure is applied, the safety buckle releases. It can be easily snapped back together again. Wearing one of these could save your pet from serious injury or death.

Graphic by KC of the Cat Blogosphere

If you have not visited Deetz's blog yet, perhaps you would like to stop by and leave a comment on Sharkie's page. It would encourage his mom. We don't think she would mind if we share this comment from her, I am at peace now with Sharkie, even though I miss that little guy so bad. So many bloggers became aware of this danger and have made changes or are taking precautions to assure it does not happen to their animals. So, something good came out of his passing! For that I am blessed.

You can read Sharkie's post. His mom does not want any of us to lose a beloved pet. It is too painful.

And Sharkie's memorial post.

(s) Cotton, Merci, Cyndi, Percy, Cameron, Buddy, Rusty & Sam