A devastated family is mourning the loss of their cavoodle, who was brutally mauled to death by a wild dog, leaving them with a hefty vet bill.
Monday started like any other for Scott Pepper and the family’s beloved dog, Lola, embarking on the same walk they’ve taken every day for the past five and a half years around their Biggera Waters neighborhood on the Gold Coast.
But her morning walk turned into horror when a grey-brown American pit bull terrier lunged at Lola from behind some wheelie bins.
Lola stood no chance during the merciless attack and sadly died from her injuries a day later.
“I picked up a container and was hitting the dog, but it kept coming,” Pepper told the Gold Coast Newsletter.
Lola, a beloved Cavoodle belonging to a Gold Coast family, was fatally killed by another dog
‘A man in a car stopped to help but then came back and was surrounding me.
“If it wasn’t for the wheelie bin, she (Lola) would have died and I would have been in the hospital.”
While fending off the attacker, Mr. Pepper lost sight of his pet and was alarmed to discover that Lola was missing.
A member of the public found the seriously injured pet curled up under the wheel of a vehicle at a nearby service station and rushed him to the vet.
Lola suffered multiple injuries, including six bite marks on her abdomen, broken ribs, ruptured lungs, a tear in her heart and needed to have her gallbladder removed.
Sadly he succumbed to shock on Tuesday morning.
A “shocked” Mr Pepper said it was like losing a human member of his family.
Adding insult to injury to the staggering $17,000 vet bill is the fact that the dog responsible for the attack has not yet been captured and remains with its owner.
Pepper claimed he knocked on the alleged owner’s door but got no answer.
Now he’s on a mission to make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else.
“I’ll spend the rest of my life making sure that dog doesn’t hurt anyone else if I have to,” he said.
“It could have been a child who was killed.”
Lola (pictured with Scott’s daughter Lacey) was considered a member of the family who has now had to pay a huge vet bill for failed attempts to save her life.
Pepper said Gold Coast City Council officials visited the property but said he was told they would not be informed of the outcome.
The council confirmed that an investigation is underway, but added that no dogs have been confiscated.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted the council for comment.
Pet owners pay a fine of $774 if they have a ferocious animal that attacks another person or animal, causing injury.
As a result of the savage attack, Lola suffered multiple injuries and eventually succumbed to shock.