California man got home from work without his dog greeting him. Then, he finds her at the side with a bag of chips over her head

Gambit (@artillicus) from California warned pet owners against leaving empty chip bags around the house. He hoped to inform other pet owners about the hidden danger it posed after what had happened to his Siberian Husky, Tåsi.

“If I could help somebody prevent what’s happened to me, it’ll be worth it if it just protects one or two,” Gambit prefaced on TikTok. The incident allegedly happened on November 3, while he was at work. He left his home at 8:00 a.m., but was not greeted by Tåsi. He didn’t think much of it until he went to the back.

Gambit said he found his husky slumped over on her side. When he called out to Tåsi, the dog’s tail allegedly wouldn’t move. When he approached her, Gambit found the dog’s head covered by a chip bag. He said it was the same bag he discarded to make nachos. He assumed that Tasi got the chip bag after he left the house.

“I shouldn’t have, but I checked the camera. And at, like, 8:30 or 8:50, she’s running around the back with a chip bag on her head. And I think what happened was, she ate all the chips, she ran out of space, and then she kept trying to get out,” Gambit explained. But instead of being able to take the bag off, Gambit believes it tightened around Tåsi’s head until the dog slowly ran out of oxygen.

“I ripped the bag off of her, and she just, like, slumped. And she’s wet, and her eyes are barely open,” he said. Gambit confirmed that it was too late to save Tåsi. It was like sending a pet to the wrong vet, only for them to pass away.

He had regrets with his dog

“I had her for six years. She survived—or was surviving—a bone-eating fungus called aspergillus, that was eating her spine,” Gambit said. Tåsi was undergoing a tough medical journey. He had slept beside his dog for two weeks to comfort his dog. Like this rescue Mastiff from Oregon, Tåsi was in dire straits medically. With care, she got better. Gambit said that even though her CT scan showed other concerns, she was in a better place than she was.

He now wakes up without his dog greeting him in the morning, which has left him with a lot of regret. He commented, “I don’t know if this is gonna help anybody, but don’t leave stuff out for them, because they’re just curious, little, innocent animals, and they just don’t know any better.”

When it happened, Gambit said no one else was home. His wife was away on a work trip. Meanwhile, Gambit, who usually comes home for lunch, didn’t come home until later that day. Gambit said he couldn’t stop thinking about his dog’s lifeless body.

“I cleaned her up, and I wrapped her in a blanket, and I gave her her favorite toy, and I slept one last night with her in my room,” Gambit said. He had her remains cremated in the morning.

Pet owners thanked him for the warning

Many pet owners sent Gambit their sympathies in the comments. Meanwhile, others have also thanked him for issuing a warning. One commenter wrote, “This is an important message. I have seen my dog with a chip bag on her head, I never thought she could suffocate. I just saw it as her being greedy. Thank you for this message.” Another commenter added that they often see their dog digging through trash and didn’t think something as tragic as what happened to Tåsi could happen to their pet. Meanwhile, other commenters have also shared similar tragic cases of dogs passing away after being suffocated by chip bags.

After his video went viral on social media, Gambit thanked commenters for their support. He wrote, “I’m blown away at all the positive messages, I’ll post about happier days that me and Tåsi shared together.”

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