Paul said his family is having a difficult time and everyone is too emotional to talk about what happened.

“Our whole family is just devastated right now,” Paul said. “My brother-in-law (whose children witnessed the attack) is just a mess.”

There have been a lot of tears over the terrifying incident.

“I feel so bad,” Paul said. “She (K-Ci) had such a tough life as a pup, she came from an abusive home, and we took her in and she had such a nice life, everything was going fine.”

K-Ci was barely alive when they took her to the veterinarian. She had extensive internal injuries and bleeding and “the skin was torn off half (her) body,” Paul said.

They were told it would cost as much as $20,000 to try to save her, and even at that, there were no guarantees.

“We would have paid for it, but they didn’t know if she would make it,” Paul said.

They decided they had to let her go.

Brampton’s Animal Services said it has seized and quarantined the two dogs, and the investigation is ongoing.

Melo said his family has been told there may be a decision this week on whether or not charges will be laid, or if the dogs will be euthanized.

The mastiffs live in a house on the same street, and Paul said the home doesn’t have a fenced backyard, so the dogs must have escaped from inside the house.

“They must have been pent up in the house all summer, they had no backyard, and they must have somehow managed to escape,” he said. “It’s a loaded gun.”

He said he heard from someone in the neighbourhood that they chased two boys on the street before turning on K-Ci.

“No dogs that size should be in a neighbourhood like that,” Paul said. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

The only dogs banned by a City of Brampton bylaw are “pitbulls.”

“The only bright light, maybe those dogs would have attacked my nephews,” Paul said.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was updated Sept. 26 to clarify attribution of the statement that there may be a decision this week on whether or not there will be charges laid or the dogs euthanized. Paul Melo provided that information as per his family, not the City of Brampton.