Dog Suffocation Awareness: Bree Almost Suffocated In A Chip Bag—Prevent Pet Suffocation

Would you figure that your snack bag could cause your dog’s death?

Dog suffocation in snack, cereal, and other bags and containers is common and happens quickly. Don’t let that happen to your dog. I cringe when I see people posting “funny” videos of dogs trying to remove a food bag that has gotten stuck on their head. How is it that people still don’t understand the danger?

Further reading: Be Aware of Pet Suffocation

Dog Suffocation Awareness: Bree Almost Suffocated In A Chip Bag—Prevent Pet Suffocation

Dog suffocation awareness: prevent pet suffocation

by Bonnie Harlan

On Friday, April 4, 2014, Jude Dillon arrived home from work in Norfolk, England, to an all too familiar sight. Her beautiful four-year-old beagle, Bree, was lying unconscious and not breathing. She had a family-sized bag of Frito-Lay’s Doritos chips stuck firmly over her head and shoulders. Curious, Jude had pulled it out of the trash bin.

Dog Suffocation Awareness: Bree Almost Suffocated In A Chip Bag—Prevent Pet Suffocation
Bree was one of the few lucky ones who got help in the nick of time.

Panicked and in shock, Jude began performing CPR on poor Bree who gradually started taking ragged breaths. 

Wrapping her struggling pup in a towel, Jude raced Bree to the local animal hospital. The vet quickly put her in an oxygen tank and wrapped her in heat pads to raise her dangerously low body temperature.

The vet estimated Bree would only have lasted another two or three minutes had Jude not found her in time. 

Bree is now back home, playing with her loving, grateful family. She isn’t showing any ill side effects from her near-death experience. What is different about Bree’s encounter with a chip bag is the happy ending.

Most dogs are not so lucky

I founded Prevent Pet Suffocation after my rescue dog, Blue, tragically suffocated in a Cheetos bag in December 2011. I am contacted regularly by devastated owners who have lost their dog to pet suffocation.

Panicked and in shock, Jude began performing CPR on poor Bree who gradually started taking ragged breaths.
Blue tragically suffocated in a Cheetos bag

By 2013, I had documented 75 dogs that died from suffocation. 50 of them suffocated in chip bags, mostly Frito-Lay products.

In 2014, I had already heard from 15 stricken pet owners whose dogs suffocated that year. 11 of these in chip bags.  

And, these are only the ones who have contacted me. The actual number is, I have no doubt, far greater.

I created Prevent Pet Suffocation to educate the public on the suffocation risks from chip bags and other food packaging.

Many people cannot fathom how a seemingly innocent chip bag weighing mere ounces could strike down a strong, healthy dog with paws and claws. 

Once the dog puts his head into these mylar-like chip bags, it creates a vacuum-like seal around the dog’s head. The more they try to breathe, the tighter the seal becomes. Too often, the dog cannot get the bag off their head. Many stumble around disoriented, blinded by the bag, gasping for breath, until they collapse and die within minutes. Some of the struggles the pets endured are horrific, including the graphic one I witnessed when I found Blue lying lifelessly in a corner with a Cheetos bag over his head.

Don’t let that happen to your dog

Believe me, you do not want to find your beloved dog like this.

The most common refrain I hear from people is “I had no idea this could happen!” And, that is a key component of Prevent Pet Suffocation. I am raising awareness of the suffocation risk posed by chip bags. Keep them out of reach of pets, and cut them up after use.

What can you do to help? 

Help me spread awareness about this growing problem so we can continue to save dogs’ lives!

Please sign and share my online petition that has almost 7,000 signatures now. Follow us on Twitter. Please visit my Facebook page Prevent Pet Suffocation and my website. Learn how to protect your dog and home by properly disposing of chip bags and other food packaging. While you are there, watch the Memorial Photos slideshow. See for yourself many of the innocent dogs who all needlessly died.

With your help, we can fight back against these dangerous bags who show our dogs no mercy.

Related articles:
Chip Bag Suffocation in Dogs: Milo Survived what many Dogs Don’t: #Preventpetsuffocation

Further reading:
Pet Suffocation Awareness

Categories: Conditions • Suffocation

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Jana Rade

I am a graphic designer, dog health advocate, writer, and author. Jasmine, the Rottweiler of my life, was the largest female from her litter. We thought we were getting a healthy dog. Getting a puppy from a backyard breeder was our first mistake. Countless veterinary visits without a diagnosis or useful treatment later, I realized that I had to take Jasmine's health care in my own hands. I learned the hard way that merely seeing a vet is not always enough. There is more to finding a good vet than finding the closest clinic down the street. And, sadly, there is more to advocating for your dog's health than visiting a veterinarian. It should be enough, but it often is not. With Jasmine, it took five years to get a diagnosis. Unfortunately, other problems had snowballed for that in the meantime. Jasmine's health challenges became a crash course in understanding dog health issues and how to go about getting a proper diagnosis and treatment. I had to learn, and I had to learn fast. Helping others through my challenges and experience has become my mission and Jasmine's legacy. I now try to help people how to recognize and understand signs of illness in their dogs, how to work with their veterinarian, and when to seek a second opinion. My goal is to save others the steep curve of having to learn things the hard way as I did. That is the mission behind my blog and behind my writing. That is why I wrote Symptoms to Watch for in Your Dog, which has turned out being an award-winning guide to dog owners. What I'm trying to share encompasses 20 years of experience.

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