dog rescue.jfif

DALLAS (WAND) - A security video shows the dramatic moment a Texas man was able to save a dog whose leash was caught in an elevator door.

The 27-year-old Texas man was lucky to be in the right place at the right time on Monday or he might not have been around when his Pomeranian neighbor was in crisis, he told NBC News. Video of Johnny Mathis showed his life saving actions unfold in Dallas.

Mathis was exiting the elevator when the dog owner walked on the elevator with her dog in tow. In the video you see the elevator door close on the dog’s leash with the owner inside the elevator.

Then Mathis noticed the dog was in danger and jumped into action to save the dog from getting strangled by its leash as the elevator car went up to the top floor.

"I tried to break it at first," Mathis said. "I tried to lean down on it with all my weight but it wouldn't snap."

Mathis, who works at Houston Welders Supply and teaches welding part-time, then tried to pull the dog's collar off. He noted that the collar had a buckle, rather than some which snap on and off.

"I was fighting all that fur, it took me a few tries because that dog was so fluffy," he said.

It took Mathis 20 seconds to free the dog and grab it for the owner.

"I could hear her screaming the whole time," he said.

He then pressed the elevator's button to try and get the dog's owner back, banging on the doors to try and let her know he got her dog.

"She was on the floor with her face covered just bawling her eyes out," Mathis said of the dog's owner when the elevator came back down. "I felt really bad."

Mathis told NBC News he hasn't been able to talk to his neighbor since the incident happened on Monday evening, but that he learned she was new to the building. It seemed to him that she didn't realize the dog, who was on a retractable lead, wasn't behind her because she didn't feel a tug on the leash.

"I really feel bad for the girl, she’s gotten a lot of hate," Mathis said. "I didn’t realize how much backlash there might be for her. We’re all human, things happen like that. It just takes a second for your attention to not be there."

He said that he hopes that people learn from this incident and pay more attention to their animals on elevators.

"It’s scary, there’s nothing you can do and if you freeze up it can go really bad," Mathis said.