It’s something every dog owner hopes they never experience seeing their pet attacked by another dog right in front of them.

But that’s what happened to a couple in Lanikai last night.

When all said and done, two dogs were sent to the vet with life-threatening injuries, and the man walking them was put in the hospital.

It happened Monday on the 1400 block of A’alapapa drive in Lanikai, Robert and Alesia Barnes were walking their three dogs, when Alicia noticed a large dog, coming toward them, “I said Bob grab the dogs. He’s coming at us and is not attached to anything. So I have my two Maltese on their leashes, and I didn’t have time to pick them up. I just pick them up by their leashes and they were hanging.”

Barnes says the bigger dog grabbed her dog out of the air, and that’s when she says another large dog came running in.

She describes what happens next. “Next thing I know Bob is on the ground in the middle of the road people all around him Jenny, our dog, is down the street with another neighbor. I’m calling for the police we call the police at 7:25 neighbors are calling the police.”

Bob says he tried everything he could to separate the dogs, “And then the dog picks up our dog and starts shaking it. Then this other dog comes out and they’re trying to pull the dog apart. I’m kicking the dog, and I’m screaming. It was worse than a sci-fi movie. You just can’t imagine how horrific it was. It just tears your guts out to see something like this.”

The Barnes say the owner of the two dogs eventually came out to help, but by then the damage had been done.

Bob took an ambulance to the hospital with minor injuries from trying to break the dogs up.

Two of the barnes dogs are still in the hospital, one of them, Alicia says, a small maltese, may have brain damage: “Daisy has large puncture wounds. She’s got a skin infection so they didn’t want to do the surgery. She’s got a broken pelvis, and she’s got hip injuries. Daisy is only five she had a whole life in front of her. Now she’s a four a half year-old mangled pinned up mess. Hopefully she lives. Let’s just hope she lives. Let’s start with that and hopefully Jenny will come out ok.”