A Santa Monica couple is pleading for help after their 4-pound toy poodle was killed in a violent dog attack on Friday.
The owners said they were taking their 11-year-old poodle, Dublin, on a routine walk at around 5:30 p.m. when a larger dog, which was on a leash, lunged after him.
Although you do not see the attack, video footage captured bystanders jumping into action and the owners’ horrified screams as they desperately tried to pry the large dog off of Dublin on Strand Street, in between Main and 2nd Streets.
“He wouldn’t let go and it got pretty bad,” said one witness. “It was just so violent.”
The couple, Alyssa Kluge and Christopher Dietrick, said that the other dog’s owner was standing on the sidewalk, leaning against a white car, when his dog mauled Dublin.
“What’s even more terrifying is that I can see it replaying over and over and over in my head,” said Kluge. She and Dietrick rushed Dublin to a pet hospital, but he didn’t make it.
Shortly after the attack, the other owner was caught on surveillance tape fleeing the scene with his dog. Dublin’s owners are now asking community members to help identify the man.
“This man is a coward who fled. Not only killed my baby, but fled,” Kluge told KTLA’s Jennifer McGraw. “We’re looking for any information. We need to find this guy.”
Witnesses said that the man ran up to 4th Street and into an apartment building in Ocean Park and was overheard saying in an English accent, “They’re going to kill my dog.”
Since the April 11 attack, the couple posted flyers around the neighborhood and are looking for more videos in hopes of finding the owner.
“I think right now we just want to know who this guy is,” said Dietrick. “I know it’s not going to bring back our little guy, but any little sense of justice is something that we’re looking for right now.”
They said the man needs to be held accountable, and they want to make sure that no other family has to go through a tragedy like this.
“I love animals, and I am an animal lover, and part of the responsibility of owning an animal is to take care of it and to make sure it doesn’t hurt others, and this man failed,” said Kluge. “He should pay for this.”
Anyone with information who would like to help out can contact the couple by calling 317-966-5130.
