Tractor-trailer crash damages Sable Kennel

Owner Dawn Weichler says the facility needs significant repairs.

By the MVI

A tractor-trailer crash at Sable Kennel in McKeesport left the play yard and storage pods damaged, prompting an urgent cleanup to remove debris, glass and leaked diesel fuel.

“The play yard is destroyed. We need to get the new carpeting down. The fencing all needs replaced because it’s just, it’s, we can’t put a dog in there. It’s not safe,” Dawn Weichler, owner of Sable Kennel, told our news partners at WTAETV. “All the gravel on the outside here will have to be removed because there’s glass within the gravel, and there is diesel fuel that has leaked everywhere.”

She shared images captured seconds after the tractor-trailer slid off Fifth Avenue, taking out the kennel’s two storage pods and the play yard.

Tim Glunt, a volunteer at the kennel, recounted his experience during the incident.

“I was in the play area with a dog named Ravioli,” he said. “I was having a little trouble getting the collar, you know, the leash on him. I got it on him. We went through that door. I took about five steps.”

Glunt said that’s when he heard the crash.

He noted that moments earlier, he and Ravioli would have been in the play area when the crash occurred.

Weichler expressed concern over the recurring issue of vehicles hitting her kennel, stating that many drivers speed around the bend and ignore the stop sign.

“My dogs could have died. So I worry about my dogs when something like this happens. It’s a frightening experience,” Weichler said.

While Weichler hopes to replace the damaged fence and clean up the play yard quickly, her immediate focus is on removing the diesel fuel and glass to ensure the safety of the more than two dozen homeless dogs housed at the kennel.