‘He felt her last heartbeat’: Family mourns pet dog mauled to death at Vancouver’s Second Beach

“A long weekend outing to Vancouver’s Stanley Park turned into a nightmare for a Langley family after their pet dog was mauled to death by a larger dog at Second Beach.

Andrea Jagdeo and A.J. Tay were out for a walk with their three children and two dogs at Second Beach at around 5:30 p.m. Monday.

It was a hot day and they had just stopped to give Sky, a three-year-old Maltipoo — a cross between a Maltese and poodle — some water to drink and were discussing where to go next when suddenly a large dog bolted towards Sky and grabbed her.

“Sky was literally just standing there, there was no interaction or anything, and this dog came out of nowhere between my daughter and I,” said Jagdeo. “It happened so fast and it grabbed Sky with so much force that her collar came off of her.”

The other dog, which was described by some eyewitnesses as a Pitbull and by others as a Bullmastiff, had clamped its jaws on Sky’s stomach and wasn’t letting go.

The family as well as complete strangers were hitting the dog, trying to get it to release the smaller pooch. Tay, who was on his phone and had his back turned when the attack began, jumped in about 30 seconds later when he heard screams and yelling in the background. He went for the dog’s head, trying desperately to pry its mouth loose.

“It was scary,” he said. “But I didn’t care at that point if I die trying to save her because I just love that dog.”

Eventually, someone kicked the larger dog in the back, which made it release Sky.

The incident felt like “forever,” but lasted about three to five minutes, said Jagdeo. Throughout the attack, the other dog’s owner did not do anything, she said. The owner and the dog fled the scene after the incident.

At the time, Jagdeo and Tay were focused on trying to get Sky to a vet. Her injuries were so extensive that when they picked her up from the ground, something fell out of her.

A stranger flagged down a passing vehicle, and the driver rushed them to a veterinarian clinic on Burrard and Broadway.

Sky was declared dead at the clinic, although the couple believes Sky died in Tay’s arms on the way to the vet. “He said he felt her last heartbeat,” Jagdeo said.

The family said the attacking dog had no leash, and Sky, “a little five-pound fur ball” who was equal parts princess and diva, didn’t stand a chance. They got Sky when she was eight months old, mostly to be a companion to their other dog, Zuma.

“She was full of personality, full of life,” said an emotional Jagdeo. “She had a tooth crooked outside of her mouth that we always made fun of. She was the right fit for us.”

After the attack, several eyewitnesses have reached out to the couple, including people who chased after the dog owner trying to get her to stop. They have reported the incident to Vancouver police and want justice for their tiniest family member.

“For whatever reason, the owner decided to unleash that dog at a busy park,” said Jagdeo, calling on the pet owner to turn herself in. “There needs to be consequences for what she did. There was no reason for her to take her dog off the leash. And she fled. That’s the worst part of this all.”

Tay said there should be stricter rules about aggressive breeds of dogs in public.

“This can’t happen again,” he said. “It’s just something that’s so preventable.”