Animal husbandry – Body- or appendage-encircling collar or band
Reexamination Certificate
2003-03-20
2004-09-21
Poon, Peter M. (Department: 3643)
Animal husbandry
Body- or appendage-encircling collar or band
C119S865000, C119S863000, C119S792000, C054S019100, C054S054000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06792894
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
Not Applicable
FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH
Not Applicable
SEQUENCE LISTING OR PROGRAM
Not Applicable
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION—FIELD OF INVENTION
This invention relates to animal restraint devices such as collars and harnesses and more specifically to non-choking animal restraint devices.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION—DISCUSSION OF PRIOR ART
Animals are commonly restrained by way of attaching a leash to a flat collar, choke chain, slip, limited slip, or prong type collar that encircles the animal's neck. Animals are also restrained by way of attaching a leash to a harness that encircles the animal's neck and body behind the front legs, or to a halter that encircles the animal's muzzle, head and neck. More recently, animals are restrained by way of attaching a leash to a no-pull type harness that encircles the animal's neck and puts pressure against the animal's sensitive foreleg pits. Many of the devices that are commonly used to restrain animals consist of an array of complicated straps and buckles that have to be attached in various places including underneath the animal.
While flat collars, choke collars, harnesses and halters that are currently widely used have been the main methods of restraining animals for many years, they have not proven to be entirely satisfactory. These devices typically result in pressure on the animal's neck, forechest, and airway and cause choking or pinching when the animal is attached to a leash. The forechest is described as the area across the front of the animal between the neck and chest. The chest is described as the underside area between the animal's front legs. Many harnesses encircle the animal's neck and have straps that go across the front of the animal below the neck and between the shoulders, also known as the forechest, and put pressure on the animal's airway.
Many animals that wear harnesses with straps across the forechest have trouble breathing when they pull against a restraint leash and they experience choking and wheezing. Many times, animal owners do not realize that their animal's neck collars or harnesses are causing injury. Animal owners do not recognize that coughing is a sign of choking when the animal is pulling against a collar or harness. Some of the harnesses claim that the pulling forces are distributed evenly across the neck and forechest area, but many animals are still unable to breathe and experience serious injury when restrained with a harness across the forechest. On occasion, animals experience serious injury when their neck collars are accidentally caught on something and their airways are restricted. The non-choking, no-pull type harnesses that are currently used as restraint devices put pressure on the animal's foreleg pits and have not proven to be satisfactory as these devices can cause undesired pain.
Currently, many commonly used animal restraint devices incorporate a choke collar feature. Many of the restraints that incorporate choking in order to control the animal were developed without the inventors realizing that putting pressure on the animal's airway was actually causing injury. Restraints that put pressure on the animal's airway often result in choking and are not effective until the animal is out of breath. The animal will continue to pull against the collar or harness even though the pulling is painful in the area of the neck or forechest. The animal will not stop pulling and will endure the pain until the animal loses its breath. Continued use of collars that cause pain can result in animals that become fearful and aggressive. Choke collars that put pressure on the animal's neck, forechest and airway, and cut off the animal's wind or cause repeated neck injury could be considered cruel and inhumane. Animal restraint devices that cause choking and unnecessary pain should be replaced.
Restraint devices, such as harnesses, involve a complicated array of straps and have not proven to be satisfactory as they are difficult to install. Generally, hook-and-loop fasteners are not used to attach restraint devices to animals because hook-and-loop can easily separate when a pulling action is exerted against the hook-and-loop fastener. Very often, if a hook-and-loop fastener is used for restraint it is placed through the center section of a metal ring and wrapped around the opposing section of hook-and-loop; however, when a tether is attached to the ring, the constant pulling forces against the hook-and-loop eventually cause the hook-and-loop to unwrap and become unattached and the item being restrained breaks free. Many animal collars that use hook-and-loop also use multiple rings to prevent the separation that occurs when a pulling action is exerted against the hook-and-loop fastener.
Research indicates that very few attempts have been made to restrain animals by devices other than those listed above where the restraint device encircles the neck or has straps across the forechest. Even though harnesses generally encircle the animal's body behind the front legs, they also encircle the neck or forechest. While some harnesses involve restraining the animal's front legs, there have been no attempts to restrain animals by avoiding pressure on both the neck and forechest.
A novel form of dog harness that includes a choke collar is described in U.S. Pat. No. 1,614,083 to Plantico (1927). According to this patent, when a dog pulls upon the harness against the lead strap, his wind is gradually cut off and he is forced to obey. This harness involves various complicated straps and buckles and it cuts off the animal's wind.
A harness that consists of a body strap with a buckle that fits around the body of an animal behind its forelegs, and a collar strap that rests on the shoulders of the animal is described in U.S. Pat. No. 1,906,043 to Bernstein (1933). This patent states that when strain is placed on a leash, it is applied to the animal's shoulders through a collar strap. When the animal is restrained with this device, there are various straps and buckles that have to be placed through loops and secured underneath the animal's chest and on the side of the animal. The termination point of the elongated loop portion of the collar strap is positioned across the animal's forechest.
An object of the invention described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,233,397 to Bloom (1941) is to provide a dog harness definitely avoiding a choking effect on throat, undue pressure on throat muscles, cords, and nerves effecting the lungs and heart, particularly when a dog strains against a leash attached to the harness. This harness is positioned across the dog's forechest.
A description of a harness that causes an animal to be restrained by forces exerted on the chest as opposed to windpipe choking forces is contained in U.S. Pat. No. 4,060,056 to Maietta (1977). This invention's objective is to provide an animal restraining apparatus that applies restraining forces to an area below the frontmost portion of the neck. This leash and harness assembly consists of unitary construction. It involves placing the straps behind the forelegs underneath the animal, around the lower neck area, and inserting them through openings.
More recently, another effort is being made to restrain animals without producing a choking action. U.S. Pat. No. 4,964,369 to Sporn (1990) describes a leash attachable dog harness that includes a pair of restraint cables that impose a pressure on the highly sensitive foreleg pits in order to restrain a dog without producing a choking action. The patent goes on to indicate that the harness comprises a collar that encircles the dog's neck along with restraint cables that are hooked to the collar. U.S. Pat. No. 5,335,627 to Bandimere (1994) talks about U.S. Pat. No. 4,964,369 to Sporn (1990) and describes that the Sporn restraint cables impose a painful pressure in the foreleg pits. The Bandimere harness comprises a collar that encircles the dog's neck along with restr
Poon Peter M.
Valenti Andrea M.
LandOfFree
Non-choking animal shoulder collar with separation... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Non-choking animal shoulder collar with separation..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Non-choking animal shoulder collar with separation... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3227891