A Tennessee animal lover was fatally shot while trying to save a puppy from being choked by its heartless owner, according to reports.

Robert Wilson, 37, allegedly spotted Donavous Jerome Drennon, 35, squeezing the adorable Yorkshire terrier’s throat outside his hotel room in Smyrna on July 27, the Murfreesboro Daily News Journal reported.

“Why are you doing that?” Wilson asked — prompting the thug to allegedly fire a bullet into his chest and then flee, police sources told the paper.

“The guy said it was his puppy and he just shot him,” Wilson’s heartbroken fiancée, Sue Hoskins, told the paper. “All I could do was try to stop the bleeding.”

Wilson, who worked at a furniture distribution center, had just relocated to Tennessee from Iowa and was staying temporarily at Uptown Suites: Extended Stay hotel with Hoskins. He called her a few minutes before confronting the alleged puppy choker.

“I dropped my phone and went running out there to see Rob saying, ‘Why are you doing that?’” said Hoskins, who witnessed the shooting.

A bystander rushed to help apply pressure to Wilson’s wound — but he later died at TriStar StoneCrest Medical Center.

Wilson was a lifelong animal lover with a heart of gold, according to his dad, Rick Wilson — who plans to commission the image of a dog on his son’s gravestone.

Drennon turned himself in to police four days after the attack on July 31 and was charged with first-degree murder. He was being held on $200,000 bond Monday, according to People magazine.

He was scheduled to appear in court Tuesday.

The rescued Yorkie pup is now up for adoption at the animal rescue center Rutherford County PAWS.