warning, dangerous collapsible pet cages

[nel3]

i dont know if anyone here has or had used collapsible pet cages meant for dogs or cats but the animals can hurt themselves when their limbs can get caught in the cage itself. this may be old news thats reposted or has yet to be posted but its worthwhile knowing the risks of such cages.

heres the link
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montre...eath-trap.html

[sarahspins]

Yeah.. because all of the OTHER things in your house are 100% safe, there's no chance they can electrocute themselves or ingest things that cause intestinal blockages... so which is worse, really? The same things that article states about crates is also true of chain link fencing.

Everything has some potential to be abused.. used correctly, crates are pretty safe.

[registereduser]

I crate my dogs in the big plastic type shown there, but foster kittens I put in the "dangerous" cages. I agree, there is danger everywhere, so far I have had great success with the wire cages.

[LaLaLeyla]

Don't normal metal cages cause the same risk?

[Bounce]

If I didn't use these "dangerous" crates to separate my dogs when I wasn't there to supervise them, I could come home to much more serious injuries than a hurt paw or a torn-out toenail. I know for a fact my dogs are safer being crated.

[LittleBettaFish]

Yeah we have to crate one of our girls at night and then when one of them comes into heat. They are both unspayed and have already had a couple of proper fights when left unsupervised inside. When they are in season our desxed males follows them around trying to mount them.

I think if you buy a high-quality crate and not something flimsy and made in Taiwan, the risk of a dog injuring itself is fairly low.

Only problem I can see is if someone locks a dog in crate without them having been trained to use one before and the dog freaks out and in its effort to escape hurts itself. Otherwise none of our dogs go crazy in the crate. Usually they just curl up and go to sleep in there.

[Tolak]

A tool used improperly is an accident waiting to happen, a cheap tool even more so. That article highlights animals left for many hours in a crate, unattended. That is wrong. Blame the owner, not the equipment being used improperly. Buying a crate is the easy part, the training that goes along with it takes time. Shoving a dog in a crate is not crate training, it takes a little time & consistency, but not much. If you can't take that time you should reconsider owning a dog.

My 3 dogs are crate trained, starts the day they come here. Last weekend was a dresser on a dolly coming in, dogs around 200 pounds of furniture on wheels plus an open door is a bad idea. Before that would be styros loaded with fish & various other items for a swap, another dolly deal with open doors & gates. Tap the crate, in they walk, no biggie. They go in every morning before I leave for work, even though they don't have to, as they have half the house to themselves. It's their safe area, and they like it. They'll often double up, I guess they like that too.



Crate training, two words. Use only half & expect half baked results.

[Silverfang]

I used to have one of those... well technically my parents did. We used it to take our cats to the vet. I remember her paw slipping and the sound she made when it got stuck under the bars, for just a moment.

I have the plastic kind, sorta like what they showed now. The cat still hates it, but she isn't going to loose any limbs or digits.