Dog beats elevator death thanks to Missouri hero

The canine’s leash caught in the lift doors.

A dog's leash got caught in elevator doors in Missouri, only to be saved by a bystander. (Flickr/Gideon Tsang)

A Missouri dog faced certain death or severe injury on Wednesday after its leash got caught in an elevator door. Lucky for the canine, a passerby rescued the dog in the nick of time.

Security footage from the Springfield apartment complex shows the dog’s owner enter the elevator. The dog, led by a retractable leash that extends, ran from the owner as the doors to the lift closed. Moments, as the elevator rises, the dog is slams against the elevator doors.

The footage shows the apartment complex manager, Brian Ussery, rush to the dog as it began to fly toward the elevator once more. He is able to grab the dog and break the leash before any more harm comes to the pet.

“I would hate to know what would have happened if I wasn’t able to break that leash before she got to the top again,” Mr Ussery told the local Fox affiliate. He added that he was in the middle of a voicemail when noticed the dog was in trouble. “I had to explain later what happened.”

Mr. Ussery said the dog’s owner was “freaking out” when he came back down to see what had come of his dog, who was not injured in the accident.

The video, posted to Mr. Ussery’s Facebook page has recieved more than 7,500 views at the time of this writing.

"When I first took the video, it was just to show my fiancé," he said. "Never in a million years did I expect it to be shared and viewed so many times. I posted it as a warning about leashes and elevators."