"Just horrific": Electric shock leaves dog writhing in pain at Park Royal

A dog endured a painful 10 minutes of electric shock at Park Royal Mall in West Vancouver in an ordeal that left the canine screaming in pain and his owner bleeding.

It’s the second such incident to happen to a dog in Metro Vancouver in recent weeks.

Teresa Bouchard brought her dog Benny, a 200-pound Leonberger, to PetSmart at Park Royal on February 25. On the way back to the car, Benny suddenly yelped and threw himself on the ground.

“He was thrashing, flailing, and the whole time making the most horrific sound — like an animal being tortured to death,” she said. “It was just horrific.”

At the time, Bouchard didn’t know that Benny was getting shocked by the metal grate surrounding a tree outside the Chipotle restaurant — she assumed he’d stepped on glass.

Bouchard threw herself on the ground alongside her dog and remembers feeling an electrical shock when she touched the ground. But she didn’t know what it was from, and thought it may have something to do with the salt on the sidewalk.

She tried brushing off Benny’s paws to get rid of the salt and check for glass. But every time Benny would stand up, he’d touch the grate and get shocked again, starting the ordeal anew.

“The poor guy, he’d stand up and fall back down again and the same thrashing, screaming, yelping. It was just so agonizing, so horrible.”

In the midst of the chaos, she noticed blood on the sidewalk. She looked over at Benny to see if he’d cut himself only to realize it was coming from her hand — Benny had accidentally bit her as he writhed in pain.

Bouchard estimated the ordeal went on for 10 minutes, during which time a crowd gathered around her. No one could figure out the source of Benny’s anguish. One woman phoned an emergency vet for Bouchard, and a man grabbed her keys to fetch her car.

The bystander, who Bouchard recognized from PetSmart, somehow found her SUV and set up the ramp for the huge dog to get into the back. Together, Bouchard and the bystander lifted Benny into the vehicle.

“He was just panting. His eyes were like saucers,” Bouchard said.

She got to the emergency animal hospital but still didn’t know exactly what had happened. She could only think of sidewalk salt as the reason for Benny’s pain. After Benny was worked up, Bouchard took him home, gave him a cuddle, and went to the hospital to get stitches for her hand.

Bouchard says she’s sticking to forested areas with Benny from here on out — no trips to downtown areas with metal grates. (Teresa Bouchard/Submitted)

Trying to find out why Benny got shocked

Bouchard filed a report with Park Royal security the night of the incident, suggesting something electric could have been going on.

She even asked security to tell Chipotle to remove its metal chairs and patio tables — she was worried a diner could be electrocuted since it was just feet from where Benny had been shocked.

It took several days re-visiting the site and speaking to different members of Park Royal’s team — several of whom dismissed her at first, she said — before the mall got an electrician to look into the issue after Bouchard spoke to the media.

“The problem we discovered was a faulty ground wire to an adjacent light pole,” Karen Donald, general manager of Park Royal, told Daily Hive. “The problem was immediately fixed. Out of an abundance of caution, we also had a third-party electrical service inspect the area and we’re confident it’s safe.”

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• City of Vancouver investigating incident after report of dog shocked by sidewalk panel

Trey Patric Helten/Facebook

This was the second time in a week a dog suffered an electrical shock from a sidewalk panel in Metro Vancouver. Titan the dog was shocked while walking near East Cordova and Columbia Streets in Vancouver, and the City of Vancouver investigated.

Bouchard learned it can be quite common after she shared her experience on Facebook. Messages poured in from people saying their dogs had been electrocuted too, and in some cases, it killed the dogs.

Bouchard is grateful Benny lived through the ordeal. His regular vet suggested his heavy weight could have been what saved him.

Benny is a certified therapy dog, and he’s very well-loved — this was the line to see him recently at a downtown office. (Teresa Bouchard/Submitted)

He’s doing well after taking it easy at home, and Bouchard says that’s the last time she’s bringing Benny to Park Royal — or any downtown area where metal grates are common. Her only exception would be outings for pet therapy appointments.

“The most important thing is he survived. It’s a miracle. I’ve been joking lately that we should name him Lucky … he is a miracle, honestly. A walking miracle.”