Most Pet Owners Don’t Realise How Dangerous Car Travel Can Be

Most pet owners genuinely believe they’re doing the right thing when traveling with their dog.

But the reality is that many dogs are transported in ways that unknowingly put everyone in the car at risk — including the dog they love.

It’s not something most people ever consider, but in a collision an unrestrained or poorly restrained dog can be thrown forward with devastating force.

Independent crash testing has shown that many popular dog car restraints fail during accidents, putting drivers, passengers, and pets in extreme danger.

Our Story

My name is Claire Harris, and for over 11 years I’ve professionally transported pets through my pet taxi service. During that time, my work expanded beyond transport into a deep focus on pet travel safety — not just how animals are moved, but how they should be moved to protect everyone in the vehicle.

After hundreds of hours researching:

I uncovered a deeply concerning truth:

This campaign is for pet owners who love their dogs and believe they’re acting responsibly — but have never been given the information or tools to do so safely.

Help Us Create a Safer Way for Dogs to Travel

Every year, thousands of dogs travel in cars using harnesses that look secure — but many have never been properly tested in a real crash.

We’re changing that.

Pets 2 Places is developing a properly crash-tested dog car harness for dogs up to 15kg — designed from the ground up using evidence, engineering, and independent testing, not assumptions or marketing claims.

This GoFundMe campaign lets you see exactly where your support goes. Each funding milestone moves us one clear step closer to a genuinely safer product for dogs and peace of mind for their humans.

Why This Matters

In a sudden stop or collision, an untested harness can:

• Fail under load

• Injure the dog it’s meant to protect

• Put passengers at risk

Right now, many pet travel products rely on claims, not proof.

We believe dog safety deserves the same seriousness as human safety.

How Your Support Makes a Difference

£5,000 — Laying the Safety Foundation

What your donation funds:

• Defining what “safe” actually means for a dog car harness

• Establishing comfort, fit, and usability standards

• Creating testing criteria before anything is built

• Developing initial harness concepts

What this achieves:

A clear, evidence-based safety blueprint — no guesswork, no shortcuts.

£10,000 — Building the First Working Prototype

What your donation funds:

• Designing the full harness structure

• Creating safe restraint geometry and adjustable fit

• Preparing for prototype manufacturing

• Building and assembling initial harness samples

• Hands-on testing for comfort, fit, and ease of use

• Reviewing and refining the design

What this achieves:

A real, physical harness that can be worn, tested, improved, and trusted.

£15,000 — Stress Testing Before Crashes

What your donation funds:

• Independent stress testing under controlled loads

• Detailed analysis to find weaknesses

• Creation of a realistic dog crash-test dummy (≤15kg)

• Design improvements based on test results

What this achieves:

Early independent proof that the harness structure can handle serious forces — before full crash testing.

£20,000 — Real Crash Testing

What your donation funds:

• Independent crash testing to recognised protocols

• Use of the dog crash-test dummy to simulate real collisions

• Detailed performance analysis

• Design updates to improve load paths and attachment points

What this achieves:

Objective evidence of how the harness behaves in a real crash — not marketing claims.

£25,000 — Refinement & Real-World Comfort

What your donation funds:

• Second-generation prototypes with crash-test improvements

• Longer-journey comfort testing

• Fit testing across a wider range of dog shapes

• Preparation of technical documentation for future certification

What this achieves:

A harness that balances real safety with everyday usability.

£30,000 — Pilot Production & Expert Feedback

What your donation funds:

• A small pilot production run

• Distribution to selected testers (pet professionals & experienced owners)

• Structured feedback on comfort, ease of use, and confidence

• Early intellectual property protection

What this achieves:

Confidence that the harness performs consistently outside the lab.

£30,000+ — Market-Ready, Public-Facing & Built to Educate

What your donation funds:

• Final design refinements based on pilot and tester feedback

• Manufacturing readiness work (materials, processes, and cost modelling)

• Preparation of full technical product data for launch

• Development of a dedicated Pets 2 Places website, including:

o Secure e-commerce to sell the harness directly to customers

o A clear, accessible education hub explaining:

 Why dog travel safety matters

 How crash testing works

 How to choose and correctly use a dog car harness

• Foundations for a follow-on Kickstarter to fund scaled manufacture

What this achieves:

A genuinely market-ready product supported by testing, transparency, and education — giving dog owners not just a safer harness, but the knowledge to make informed safety decisions.

Looking Ahead

This campaign focuses on our first product — a crash-tested car harness for dogs up to 15kg.

Our long-term vision goes much further. Pets 2 Places is committed to developing a full range of evidence-led pet transport equipment, including products for larger dogs, cats, and small animals.

Future products will be funded through the successful sale of this first harness, allowing us to reinvest profits directly into further research, testing, and development — raising safety standards across pet travel, one step at a time.

Why We Need Your Support

This project cannot begin without fundraising support. Independent testing, prototype development, and crash testing all have real upfront costs, and we’ve deliberately chosen not to cut corners or rely on unverified assumptions.

Your contribution directly enables the work to start — turning a safety-led idea into a tested, working product.