When you take your pup to a holiday event, you expect to have a jolly good time. What you don’t expect is for your fur baby to get hurt, much less die. Unfortunately for one Washington State dog mom, that’s exactly what happened when her beloved canine was electrocuted by a Christmas light display.
Holiday Horror
The tragedy occurred at the Holiday Magic event at the Washington State Fairgrounds in Puyallup last Friday. Vyctoria Sanchez brought her 9-month-old dog, Maverick, to the festivities to enjoy the Christmas lights. What she didn’t realize was that the display would prove deadly.
“It was a huge safety hazard and they didn’t even recognize it until my dog was dead,” Sanchez told KOMO News.
Sanchez’s friend reportedly sensed “an electric jolt” near the light display just before Maverick was electrocuted.
“He fell to the ground and started crying for me to help him and that’s when fair staff immediately called medics to come over there because he wasn’t moving. He was just crying. And I wanted to help him so bad,” Sanchez said.
Medics arrived on the scene and administered oxygen but the pup passed away.
Mom of Electrocuted Dog Speaks Out
Sanchez is now chastising the fairgrounds for not ensuring the area was safe before allowing the public in.
“With an event, especially like that- you have a lot of lights, you have a lot of kids and people bringing their families. You should’ve done the proper safety checks to ensure something like this wouldn’t happen,” Sanchez said.
Fairgrounds officials have admitted there was an underground wire issue, and stated that the area where Maverick died has been disconnected. No other safety issues were found during a review of the event.
“Our hearts are with the owner who lost her dog at our Holiday Magic event Friday evening. After investigating the circumstances surrounding this tragic incident, we found the source underground. We have done a comprehensive review of the grounds and added additional enhanced safety measures, to ensure the safety of our guests and staff,” a fairgrounds spokesperson said in a statement.
“Following the incident, we did everything onsite we could, to assist and comfort the dog owner,” the statement continued. “We brought in a Puyallup police chaplain to speak with her as well. Additionally, we have reached out to her since the incident. As always, safety is our top priority.”
Here’s hoping all dogs do indeed go to heaven, and that they have beautiful — and safe — Christmas light displays there.
