Animal husbandry – Railroad car or other livestock long distance carrying vehicle – Having partition means
Patent
1994-10-13
1996-05-07
Price, Thomas
Animal husbandry
Railroad car or other livestock long distance carrying vehicle
Having partition means
296 242, B60B 304, B61D 300
Patent
active
055135951
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to transportable animal enclosures.
This invention has particular but not exclusive application to improvements to animal enclosures for horses, such enclosures being in the form of trailers and the like towed by a vehicle and for illustrative purposes reference will be made to such application. However, it is to be understood that this invention could be used in other applications, such as for other animal transportation such as trucks and/or semi-trailers, rail mounted carriages, aircraft or shipping containers and such like or for non-equine animals and such like.
Transportable animal enclosures, including horse floats, generally comprise a space to accommodate an animal and include transportation means which may be either formed integrally with, or connectable to, the accommodation space. The animal accommodation space is usually made to conform to the larger or basic dimensions of the animal with an additional surrounding space to allow for comfort and ease of use for the animal. In horse floats the accommodation space is normally in the form of a box having a rounded top and/or front end, a gate pivoted about its bottom edge as a back wall. The accommodation space further includes substantially vertical sides spaced apart slightly greater than the body width or thickness of a horse. The gate is usually pivotable from a closed position where it forms the back wall of the accommodation means to an open position where it forms a ramp permitting an animal to conveniently enter and exit the animal enclosure.
Whilst such enclosures are generally satisfactory, an animal may be injured during transit due to direction changes. When cornering, for example, the animal may attempt to climb the side walls and may stumble and fall to the floor. Intuitively, some animals have a tendency to crouch down on their hind legs, which in combination with wall climbing may cause scramble and/or fall injuries to the animal.
It will be appreciated that this invention is not limited to jument, sumpter-beasts or other beasts of burden, and may be applied to the transport of other animals which are prone to the abovementioned difficulties, such as zoo animals, farm animals and such like.
The present invention aims to alleviate one or more of the above disadvantages and to provide a transportable animal enclosure which will be reliable and efficient in use.
With the foregoing in view, this invention in one aspect resides broadly in a transportable animal enclosure assembly including:
opposed longitudinal side wall assemblies each having a respective upper portion adapted to constrain sideways movement of an upper body portion of an animal being transported, and
a base wall assembly extending between and laterally beyond said upper portions and being accessible to the animal being transported. Suitably the lower portion is adapted to accommodate splayed legs of the animal being transported.
The side wall assemblies may be open at the lower portion to permit the animal to access the base wall lying laterally beyond the upper portions. In particular, the side wall assemblies are arranged so that the feet and/or the legs of the animal may splay outwardly. Preferably, one or both side wall assemblies include a lower portion disposed outwardly from the respective said upper portion and extending towards said base wall. In a further preferred form, the lower portion slopes inwardly from the base wall to the upper portion.
Preferably, the transportable animal enclosure includes rear support means for supporting the rump of an animal and chest restraining means for restraining the animal against the rear support means. The chest restraining means and/or rear support means may be fixed for an animal of a particular size. Preferably, however, the chest restraining means and/or the rear support means are adjustable to encourage animal to substantially support itself upon said rear support means. In a preferred embodiment, the rear support means is in the form of a height adjustable bar and the chest restraining means i
REFERENCES:
patent: 2630097 (1953-03-01), Johansen
patent: 3053224 (1962-09-01), Pierce
patent: 3862526 (1975-01-01), Loughlin
patent: 4168933 (1979-09-01), Kane
patent: 4195593 (1980-04-01), Dunn
patent: 4355594 (1980-10-01), Wagner
patent: 4468061 (1984-08-01), Blake
patent: 4530538 (1985-07-01), Greene, Jr.
patent: 4732419 (1988-03-01), Ketterer
J. R. Floats Pty. Ltd.
Price Thomas
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