When Devin Drewitz watched his dog Jake casually jump onto, then disappear over, a waist-high ledge framing an outdoor walkway at BC Place Stadium, he assumed the Siberian husky had found a patch of grass to sniff on the other side.

But as the resident of East Vancouver walked toward the ledge — located near Gate B and Terry Fox Plaza — the seriousness of what had just happened gradually became apparent.

Peering over the edge, he watched as a crowd of people raced toward and then surrounded Jake, who was lying motionless on the ground about 11 metres below Drewitz’s feet.

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Jake’s terrible accident was the first of three falls from the western edge of BC Place since last spring that have left two dogs dead and one seriously injured, according to staff at a nearby veterinary clinic.

The circumstances surrounding the three falls are similar — in each case, young, large, healthy and active off-leash dogs had walked or run toward the ledge, then climbed or jumped over it, unaware of the tremendous drop to Expo Boulevard on the other side.

Within a week of the third fall, veterinarians at Yaletown Pet Hospital contacted staff at BC Place to tell them what had been happening and ask for stronger safety measures. Jessica Robertson, a doctor at the clinic, said staff at the stadium listened to their concerns, but did nothing other than install a few signs telling dog owners to leash their pets.

Despite the accidents, BC Pavilion Corporation staff who manage BC Place are defending the safety of the plaza and have little planned to prevent further tragedies.

It was a sunny day in April 2013 when Jake, one-and-a-half years old at the time and wearing a shock collar for off-leash training, jumped onto and fell over the ledge. Drewitz said he had noticed a sign that read, “Caution Steep Drop,” but he said it didn’t register with him until after his dog had fallen.

“It should have clicked with me,” he said Wednesday. “You always think ‘what could I have done differently’ and I saw the sign. I know I saw the sign. I shouldn’t have had him off leash for a second.”

After Jake hopped onto then fell over the ledge, he remained motionless on the ground for what Drewitz said felt like as much as 15 minutes.

“I thought he was dead,” he said.

Soon a veterinarian ran through the crowd and transported the dog with the help of a police officer to the clinic, located half a block away. Staff there determined Jake had suffered serious internal injuries in the fall, including damage to his bladder, lungs and liver. He had also badly broken one of his front legs.

But Jake survived. One year later, he is nearly back to normal, said Drewitz, a 24-year-old bartender who is still in debt from nearly $9,000 in veterinary bills. Jake can no longer bend his right leg and he drags his paw a bit when he walks, but his energy has mostly returned and he is back to hiking and joining Drewitz when he longboards.

Jake is the only dog of three brought into Robertson’s clinic in the past year that survived its fall.

“They’re bad falls,” said Robertson, adding that she knew of one other dog that fell in 2008 and said there could be many more.

Robertson said she’s not aware of anywhere else in the city where this type of thing is happening.

“It’s just a spot where there’s no cars that people let their dogs off-leash, thinking that it’s well contained. (The dogs) hop up there thinking that they’re just going to jump down onto the other side of the ledge and it’s going to be at the same height,” she said. “They don’t realize until they’re falling that it’s a drop-off.”

That was the case in October, when Charlotte Caron’s dog Roxie — a German short haired pointer — jumped over the ledge at the side of the plaza and landed on her back on the roadway below.

Caron had been walking with Roxie near Gate H when she was spooked by one of the statues in the plaza and bolted.

“I just thought she was going to go straight for the park,” said Caron. “At some point she just dashed to the other side and that’s when she jumped.”

Caron froze. She had been through the area before and knew how far the drop was. She said she immediately heard Roxie screaming, but couldn’t move. A bystander told her to run to her dog and by the time she got to her, Roxie was surrounded by members of a construction crew who had been working nearby.

The dog fared badly from the fall. Robertson said her back was broken and she was bleeding internally. It was unlikely that Roxie would recover, she said. If she did, she would probably not regain function of her hind limbs, bladder or bowels. Caron was forced to put Roxie down.

“She was only one-and-a-half years old and she was my whole world,” said Caron, a 27-year-old citizen of France who works at a bakery in Vancouver. “I haven’t stopped thinking about her for one second.”

She said she would like people to be aware that the area is dangerous.

“There must be something we can do to avoid that (happening again),” she said.

In the latest case, which happened March 21, a dog had been chasing a bird before it jumped over the ledge, said Robertson. The dog died within minutes from what veterinary staff determined to be a severe head and neck injury.

It was after that incident that Robertson’s colleagues, determined to prevent another tragedy, contacted BC Place.

In an email to The Sun, a PavCo spokesman said staff at the stadium spoke with members of the clinic then brought in an engineer who assessed the area to ensure the walls around the plaza met B.C.’s building code. Stadium staff also put up additional signs, reminding pet owners to keep their dogs on-leash.

“We are truly saddened by this occurrence,” said Kathy deLisser, the assistant general manager at BC Place, in a statement. “By raising awareness through this additional signage, we can help to prevent these most unfortunate incidents from happening in the future.”

On Wednesday afternoon, Rand Thomson was walking near Gate B with Juno, a rescue dog from Buenos Aires that he was taking care of on behalf of a friend.

Thomson said he was surprised to hear that dogs had jumped onto then fallen over the ledge.

“I don’t think he would do that,” he said, looking at Juno, who was wandering off leash nearby.

Robertson said the signs aren’t enough.

“We probably need fences up there or something,” she said, adding that dog owners have to be responsible for their pets but passive signs aren’t sufficient when there is a risk of death.

If PavCo won’t put in fences or railings like those that line the overhead walkways at nearby Rogers Arena, then stronger signs with clear graphics depicting a dangerous fall is a minimal option, she said.

“Those graphics look kind of funny — they’re cartoonish, but it gets the message across. Maybe something a little stronger than ‘keep your dog on-leash.’”

For Drewitz, signs are not enough.

“This is supposed to be a world-class city and this is a world class venue,” he said, adding that signs were the bare minimum staff at the newly-renovated stadium could do to prevent further accidents.

“My condolences to those other dog owners.”

Based on emailed responses to this article from readers, the number of alleged cases of dogs falling from the same location is nine as of Thursday evening.

mrobinson@vancouversun.com

Follow me: @MT_Robinson

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