Baby gate maker offers compensation to woman whose dog impaled itself on metal latch
A manufacturer of baby gates has offered to compensate a Milton, Ont. woman whose dog impaled itself on the metal latch of one of its products.
The incident happened on May 8, when Michelle Tudor heard her sister's two-year-old German Shepherd-Beagle mix crying and yelping in pain.
Tudor was pet sitting at her sister's home and had stepped outside to take her own dog for a quick walk. She made it just a few steps before bolting back inside.
"I opened the door and she was literally hanging upside down on the gate, said Tudor. "Her front paws were not touching the floor. Her back paws were not touching the floor."
The dog, Xena, had apparently tried to leap over the baby gate her sister Alicia McGill uses to keep her from running outside.
In the process, the dog impaled its abdomen on a metal latch at the top of the white gate, which locks the door.
Tudor kicked down the gate, Xena then "wriggled off" the latch and ran downstairs, shaking and crying.
Weeks later, the inside of the latch is still coated in a splash of crimson-coloured dried blood.
Surgery revealed 'severe internal bleeding'
After getting a call from her sister about the accident, McGill rushed to meet her injured dog at the vet.
The outlook wasn't good, she was told. The veterinarian would have to take the dog in for surgery to check for possible internal damage.
"We were extremely lucky there were no organs hit," McGill said. "She just had severe internal bleeding."
The wound on her belly was stitched up and is now mostly healed, although she says the dog still has some trouble running.
McGill has since turned her attention to Regalo Baby, the company that manufactured what she now sees as a faulty, dangerous product.
Company offers compensation
The latch that injured her dog is designed to be locked down by a second mechanism, which Tudor says she secured before the incident.
But she says the sharp latch too easily flips up from the second lock, posing a serious threat to animals and babies alike.
"If a dog can end up doing that to themselves, so can a child," she said.
McGill has asked Regalo Baby to compensate her for the vet bills, two days of lost wages, her Lyft ride to the vet's office and the cost of the gate, totalling $1,986.16.
While Regalo Baby has offered to repay half the cost of the vet bill, at $796.33, the company says its product was not at fault.
Product has 'stellar safety record,' Regalo Baby says
"We have never, in the ten-year history of this product, had an incident as that described by Ms. McGill," said executive office manager Cynthia Kempton, who said the offer was made "as a matter of courtesy and customer relations."
The gate in question, she added, has been tested and approved by multiple safety organizations, including ATSM International and the Juvenile Product Manufacturers Association.
"Our company has sold millions of copies of this gate over the past ten years, and to this day maintains a stellar safety record," she wrote.
McGill has not yet decided if she will accept the offer, since the company has not admitted it's at fault in the incident or agreed to add a warning about the latch.
