Elevator Doors Trap Dog's Leash

It is a nightmare for dog lovers everywhere. A young woman, Tamara Seibert, noticed her dog caught its leash between an elevator's closing doors.  

Seibert's beloved dog, Vado was yanked up by the neck and left hanging as the elevator started to go down.

She tried to save him by frantically pushing the elevator's emergency buttons.  She even rushed to hold up Vado so he won't choke to death.

She told INSIDE EDITION, “I thought he was going to die in front of me.”

Watch the Terrifying Scene Caught On Tape!

In seconds that seemed like a lifetime, she struggled to unhook the leash and keep the 110-pound Rottweiler alive.  

“At first I was trying to lift him with one arm and I couldn't do it,” she said.

Finally, the leash snapped off just as the elevator doors open. Vado and a neighbor's dog that Seibert was taking for a walk scampered out safe and sound, but she slumped between the elevator doors and started to sob.

Seibert said, “I was terrified and I just remembered that once he was down, I was hysterical.”

Seibert, a student and model who lives in Toronto showed INSIDE EDITION the two fingers she broke while coming to the rescue of five-year-old Vado.

Amazingly, her terrifying experience has happened before.

In another incident, a kid had his dog on a really long leash and held the elevator door open but the dog refused to come. The doors closed and the puppy was hoisted in the air before the leash snapped and he landed on the floor.

Dog trainer Andrea Arden said many dog owners just don't realize how dangerous elevators can be.

She has good advice to help keep your dog safe, saying, “Make sure you don't press the button for the elevator until you know you the dog is in there with you. Teach your dog to sit in the back of the elevator because if the door opens you have the best chance of preventing your dog from exiting without you."

Seibert posted the video of her terrifying experience on Facebook where it has received over 112,000 views, saying, “I just wanted to warn people, so it never happens again.”