Officials say a pit bull has been euthanized after it fatally attacked a smaller dog at the Esquimalt Lagoon on Thursday.

Mounties and animal control were called to the lagoon at 5:30 p.m. for a report that a pit bull attacked a smaller dog, the City of Colwood said in a release.

A bystander who intervened in the attack sustained minor injuries to her hands and was taken to Victoria General Hospital.

The pit bull owner, who bylaw officers said appeared to be extremely remorseful, surrendered the dog to CRD Animal Control to be put down.

In a Facebook post, a man identifying himself as the attacked dog’s owner reported that his small Shih Tzu named Cole was the one killed, calling him “the sweetest little dog there ever was.”

He said that Cole's sister, Opal was initially attacked by the pit bull, and that's when the "little hero" dog jumped in to defend her.

“His sister Opal was attacked at the beach by a pit bull and Cole jumped between them to save her," said Cody Brown.

Opal made it to a veterinary clinic in time to get stitched up and survived the attack, he wrote.

He said the dogs were in an off-leash part of the park and that his dogs were not leashed at the time.While the pit bull had a leash still attached to its collar, Brown said the owner was not holding it at the time.

He said his goal in writing the post “is not to add to the negative stigma around pit bulls, but to implore owners of any dog capable of serious damage to prevent horrible things like this from happening in the future.”

It’s a point echoed by CRD Chief Bylaw Officer Don Brown.

“I think it’s important for people to realize just because they’re dogs on a leash, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re under effective control,” he said.

Brown said when the pit bull was seized and brought in for assessment, it was determined that it was behaving “strangely” and should be put down.

The owner of the pit bull was not fined by animal control after cooperating in the investigation, but could face civil action from the slain dog’s owners, Brown said.