PITTSBURGH — Three dogs have now been injured or killed after being shocked while walking on city sidewalks in the last two years. Channel 11 has learned it’s now happened in three separate city neighborhoods: Squirrel Hill, Oakland and the Strip District.
Montana Mitchell was running with her chocolate lab, Denim near Smallman and 11th Streets when they were both shocked and had to be hospitalized.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE >>> Woman, dog electrically shocked while on run in Pittsburgh
“I didn’t think he was going to survive,” Mitchell said with tears in her eyes. “It was the worst experience of my life.”
Mitchell says Denim was screaming in pain, convulsing, and foaming at the mouth. She didn’t know the source of the shock, but she could feel it too. After getting help from a Good Samaritan on the street, the two were shocked again.
The Mayor’s Office says the barrier around the bottom of the pole was damaged and a pinched wire was pushing up against the electrified pole. The city is continuing to monitor the pole, and all readings have been normal.
We’ve also learned that in Oakland, a dog was shocked nearly three months ago. There is still caution tape and orange cones around a light post on Forbes Avenue.
That’s where Jack went out with this family for a walk on CMU’s campus. The King Charles Cavalier, who just turned one, stopped to sniff around a light post when he was shocked. He survived and his mom reported this to CMU police.
We reached out to Carnegie Mellon University. They tell us the proper electrical companies came out and completed the repairs. Their police report shows the owner of the pole is Allegheny Electric.
“I would hope they would figure out the deeper issue,” Ammerman said. “How’d that happen? How’d they let that happen? What’s their service like that something would be left like that?”
And in January of 2024, Nikki, a border collie lab mix, was electrocuted while walking with her owner over a metal plate on the Murray Avenue Bridge in Squirrel Hill.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE >>>Channel 11 presses for answers after dog fatally electrocuted on public Pittsburgh sidewalk
The city says that after that incident, a consultant recommended the city inspect all street lights it owns, but the previous administration didn’t do this.
The O’Connor administration says it has started that process and will continue until all light posts in the city are inspected.
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