A ute driver has been slammed for travelling at 110km/h on a highway while a dog was in the back.
The dangerous situation on a Sydney road was spotted by another motorist who took a photo and uploaded it to reddit.
‘Can somebody driving at 110km/h on a highway keep the dog in an open boot?’ the person asked in their post.
Hundreds of commenters were divided on the issue, noting the potential danger if the dog jumped out or the car had to stop suddenly or swerve.
‘I saw a dog like this on a below 10 [degree] day, slight rain with a cable tie around its mouth. Don’t have a dog if you can’t treat it properly,’ one person wrote.
‘I’ve seen a dog jump out of a ute only to be dragged under the wheel when they reached the end of the chain,’ another person wrote.
Others said dog owners should be allowed to put their pets in the back of utes if they assess it is safe for them to do so.
‘As long as they’re restrained and the weather isn’t hot, and of course they’re comfortable, this isn’t bad or cruel necessarily,’ one person wrote.
‘You think dogs fair much better inside the vehicle where there isn’t even a requirement to restrain them and they become a projectile in a crash?’ another person argued.
Motorists in NSW must ensure pets are safely restrained if travelling in the back of a ute.
Drivers will face fines and a possible jail sentence if they do not take measures to ensure the pet is safe.
‘Consider safely restraining your dog in the cabin of your ute or open vehicle with a safety-belt restraint as this is generally safer, especially in the case of an accident,’ the RSPCA advises.
Motorists are instructed to use a safety belt or tether that is long enough to allow their dogs to stand or lie down, but not too long as to allow the dog to jump or fall off.
A driver divided social media users last year after he was spotted travelling on the Pacific Motorway near the Gold Coast with his dog strapped to the back of his ute.
‘Can’t they just let their dog ride shotgun like a normal Australian,’ one person wrote.
‘If the dog is tethered to the centre [of the cabin] and the driver is driving normally and responsibly, I don’t think its a problem,’ another user wrote.
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