It took less than a minute for Tamara Seibert’s ordinary day to turn terrifying. As the Toronto woman escorted her two dogs into an elevator at her condo – as she had done probably 4,000 times over the past five years – she lost track of one of the leashes.
The leash snagged in the door. As the elevator began to move, her Rottweiler named Vado was instantly yanked from the floor. Left dangling above her head, Seibert frantically pressed buttons to stop the elevator and tried unhook Vado’s collar.
“I thought I was about to lose the love of my life (my puppy) and seriously mangled my hand in the process,” she wrote on her Facebook page where she also posted the harrowing footage captured by a surveillance camera.
While the incident happened last month, Seibert uploaded the video this week to alert people to what she called “one of the most traumatic experiences of my life.” It was one that could happen to anybody.
“I am posting this because thank god my dog survived but I want to warn people how fast something so simple can go horribly wrong. I never want anyone else to ever go through this. You can’t see my face but I’ve never been so hysterical in my life,” she wrote.
Seibert has received an outpouring of support and shared experiences (including the the death of a young girl) as well as some criticism as her story has spread around the world. Seibert acknowledges she made a mistake, but it’s one that could happen to anyone, she says.
“I wanted to share this so for all of you that still aren’t grasping how dangerous this is, it could be a collar, a scarf or a dress,” she wrote.
h/t Toronto Sun Photo Facebook
