The biggest trend of the '80s, treating animals like human beings, continues unabated in California, the land where the future arrives first.

A state legislator out there, one Jack O'Connell, has now introduced a bill that would make it an offence to carry an animal unrestrained in the back of a pickup truck. Too dangerous. Animals need seatbelts, too.

Anyplace else, O'Connell would support his proposal with logic, statistics, expert testimony, boring stuff like that. This is California, however, so he's using actresses instead:

"An idea whose time has come," said Lindsay Wagner, endorsing the bill.

"I'm very concerned about animals," added Amanda Blake, formerly Miss Kitty on the classic western series Gunsmoke (and on that show, believe me, the horses were never, ever, carried in pickup trucks).