Family devastated as savage dog kills pet
A Biggera Waters family is distraught after an unleashed hunting dog savagely attacked their beloved pet in a suburban street, fatally injuring her and leaving them with a $17,500 vet bill.
Frighteningly, the dog responsible has not been seized.
“We’ve had Lola for 5½ years and have taken her for that same walk on Hollywell Rd every day,” Scott Pepper said.
But at 5.50am on Monday, as Lola happily trotted next to her owner, the attacking dog sprung out from behind a line of wheelie bins.
“I picked up a bin and was whacking the dog, but it kept coming,” Mr Pepper said.
“A man in a car pulled over to help – then it came back and it was circling me. If it wasn’t for the wheelie bin, she would have been dead and I would have been in hospital.
“I got away, looked around and Lola was gone.”
A member of the public found the Peppers’ precious pet broken, bloodied and cowering under the wheel of a car at a nearby service station, and took her to the vet.
“She had broken ribs, ruptured lungs, a tear in her heart – she had to have her gall bladder removed,” Mr Pepper’s daughter Lacey, 21, said.
“There were six bite marks in her abdomen.”
Despite vets doing everything they could, Lola succumbed to shock early Tuesday.
“We’re just devastated,” Mr Pepper said. “I work at home so she would sit on my lap while I was working – she was just like a human being.”
Accompanying the pair’s devastation, and mammoth vet bill, is anger that a dog with such a propensity for unprovoked violence was permitted to be kept in their suburb – let alone allowed to roam free.
The owner of the dog, believed to be a grey-brown American pit bull terrier, did not answer the door when Ms Pepper knocked.
“We lost her, but we didn’t lose her – she was taken from us,” Ms Pepper said.
“I’ll spend the rest of my life making sure that dog doesn’t hurt anyone else if I have to.
“It could have been a child who was killed.
“The Gold Coast City Council officers came out, but they said we won’t find out the outcome. That’s not good enough.”
The council said an investigation into the attack was under way.
“At present no animals have been seized,” it said in a statement. “While this investigation is undertaken, the City is unable to comment further.”
Mayor Tom Tate, whose own American bulldog Jaidee was involved in a fight with a small dog five years ago, said dog owners should be held accountable.
“I think the one thing that people change attitude (for) is the hip pocket,” he said on Wednesday. “If you hit the hip pocket a bit harder, people think a bit harder about having their dogs off leash, especially big ones. We’ll be reviewing it at the next budget.”
The city last year increased fines by up to four times for owners who fail to control aggressive pets. Residents who have a vicious animal that attacks another person or animal causing injuries will cop a $774 fine. Failure to keep a dog under effective control will cost owners $619.
New laws have also been proposed by the state government after a spate of horrific attacks, including the death of an Energex meter reader and the mauling of two children.
Owners could face penalties of up to $100,000 or up to three years’ jail in the most serious cases. Five breeds, including American pit bull terriers and pit bull terriers would be banned completely.
“Every time I close my eyes, I replay the attack and think what I could have done differently,” Mr Pepper said.
“It’s really traumatised me.”