Preventable Accidents

By Amy Fernandez

In case you haven’t seen the viral video of the moment, it’s security cam footage of a Pug’s rescue from a nearly tragic accident. The owner steps into the elevator of her apartment building, in the Russian city of Perm, Pug in tow. The doors close on the leash, the elevator starts moving, and a security camera catches the dog being dragged up the outside of the doors when a quick thinking bystander grabs it and unclips the leash.

That story, thankfully, had a happy ending. Unfortunately, accidents just like that happen way too often, usually with tragic endings.

The first thing that came to my mind was a similar terrible story out of London six months ago. A miniature Dachshund, fondly known as Alan Plumptre, was the beloved office mascot of the London gossip magazine Tatler. Owned by an editor at that publication, he was a regular at their posh Hanover Square office, with 2,500 Twitter followers noting his every tweet. That day, as an office assistant brought him back from a walk, he bolted into the lobby’s revolving door, became trapped, and was fatally injured as the heavy glass doors closed.

These are freak accidents. They happen in a split second, and there’s not always time to react. However, they have one common denominator – dog walkers failing to pay attention.

These incidents spiked after the introduction of the retractable leash, which may rank as my most hated dog accessory. In recent years, manufacturers have begun adding disclaimers to the packages. This measure was prompted by a blitz of lawsuits after dog walkers began losing eyes and fingers after their dogs bolted and leashes became tightly twisted around a finger or snapped, hitting them in the face. These disasters typically occur when pairing big strong dogs with retractable leads. Far more commonly, tiny Toy dogs fall victim to oncoming cars, bicycles, skateboards, and baby carriages when their owners fail to reel in retractable leads.

Even before the advent of cell phones and ipods, daydreaming was a perpetual risk of pleasant dog walks. We are all guilty of this occasionally. A momentary lapse of attention usually results in nothing worse than tripping over the leash or stepping on a canine toe. But bad outcomes happen too often for my taste. Quite possibly, I’m gaining a reputation as a neighborhood nut. But I’ve assisted in too many emergency chase and choking incidents after oblivious owners have let their dogs slip the lead or grab garbage off the street. By now, my careless pet owner lecture is on autopilot. Puppy buyers get take home notes in addition to the lecture.

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Posted by admin on Jun 4 2013. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.