It all started when Toronto resident Tamara Seibert walked her rottweiler, Vado, to the elevator– something she’d done more than 4,000 times in the 5 years she’s lived in her apartment building.
Somehow, when the elevator doors closed, her 110 pound Rottweiler’s leash fell to the ground and got caught in the elevator door. When the elevator started descending to the parking garage, the leash dragged Vado up towards the ceiling of the elevator.
Tamara described the next few moments as the most hysterical and horrific of her life. “I thought I was going to watch him die,” Tamara told the Sun News Network. “He’s 110 pounds and he was just picked clean off the ground. I just panicked and was going to do whatever I could to get him down. We just kept going down until his nylon leash ended up snapping.”
To try and get the word out about the potential dangers of dogs and elevators, Tamara requested the CCTV footage from her building so that she could share the video to warn other dog parents to prevent it from happening to them. A quick search on Youtube shows dozens of dogs getting their leashes caught as they enter or exit elevators.
**A disclaimer: The footage below is very difficult to watch. But if it helps another pup parent avoid a sobering experience, this video needs to be shared.
The best news of all is that Vado and Tamara are completely fine today. We’d like to give Tamara serious high paws for sharing her experience to help others. It’s always hard to share a traumatic experience and events like this are a reminder that even the most routine tasks can turn bad. Be careful out there, guys. <3

