On Wednesday, May 21, 2026, a 3-year-old dog named Skylar was electrocuted while being walked along East 76th Street in Manhattan's Upper East Side. She stepped onto cellar doors covering a Con Edison-labeled live wire that had been sitting exposed on the sidewalk for at least a month. Her owner, Lindsay, watched helplessly as Skylar yelped and convulsed with every step, unable to escape the current. Lindsay scooped her dog off the ground and spent the night watching to make sure she was still breathing.

Skylar survived. Not everyone has.

This incident came just days after Donike Gocaj, a 56-year-old grandmother, fell to her death through an open Con Edison maintenance hole in Midtown Manhattan. She screamed "I'm dying" while bystanders frantically tried to help her before first responders arrived. In 2022, a Great Dane-Boxer mix named Lala died after stepping on an electrically charged metal plate on a Brooklyn sidewalk.

This is a pattern. Live wires left on sidewalks for weeks. Open manholes on city streets. Infrastructure failures that kill people and animals while Con Edison issues statements about prioritizing public safety and dispatching crews. After Skylar was shocked, Lindsay called ConEd's emergency line — and waited hours for a response.

We are calling on Con Edison, New York City, and state regulators to hold the company fully accountable. That means real inspections, enforceable timelines, meaningful penalties for negligence, and a transparent public reporting system for hazardous infrastructure. New Yorkers should not have to fear walking their dogs or stepping out of their cars.

Con Edison cannot keep reacting. It is time to demand accountability.