A Tallmadge Middle School student on her way home from Cedar Point couldn't believe the ride a large, black and white dog was taking on Route 2.
Angie Bowman, 14, peered out her passenger side window and saw the dog in the bed of a pickup truck, without a tailgate, going about 60 mph.
She snapped multiple pictures and put them on her Facebook page.
"The dog was fidgeting around. It just looked so uncomfortable and then it looked at me when we drove by and that broke my heart," Bowman said.
The girl noticed the dog was tied in the bed, but in her mind, this seemed like animal cruelty.
"It was nuts to me to think that somebody could do something like that to their animal, man's best friend. Why would you tie him up like that?"
Bowman feared the dog could still fly out of the vehicle and be dragged to its death. She also was concerned that other drivers could potentially be in danger.
"What if the dog flew off or jumped off and hit somebody's car or went through the windshield and hurt a person driving?"
The girl, an eighth grader, called the Ohio State Highway Patrol, and found out what Stark County Dog Warden Jon Barber already knew.
"Currently, there are no laws that specifically deal with an animal in an open vehicle like that," Barber said.
The Ohio Revised Code only mentions people, not animals.
It reads, "No driver of a truck, trailer or semitrailer shall knowingly permit any person who has not attained the age of sixteen years to ride in the unenclosed or unroofed cargo storage area of the driver's vehicle if the vehicle is traveling faster than twenty-five miles per hour."
"I think there should be laws and I would encourage anyone who feels there are things like this going on, to contact their local legislators," Barber said.
Bowman would also like to see laws changed and hopes her social media postings will generate more attention to her cause.
"I hope that something can be changed, that people shouldn't be able to do stuff like that to their animals."
