As the city investigates a deadly dog mauling Wednesday, the animal's owner has been left 'completely devastated'.

'He's my little baby,' Christine Kallikragas, who owned Pilot, the dog mauled on the trails in Copper Ridge, told the Star this morning.

Kallikragas said she had gone out running on the trails behind Falcon Drive with Pilot, a Pomeranian who often joined her on her morning run.

As usual, she let Pilot off his leash. When she saw two big Italian mastiff dogs, weighing about 32 kilograms (70 lbs.) each, coming her way, she stopped running and picked up Pilot so he wouldn't take off toward the pups.

When the woman walking the two other dogs told her not to worry and that the dogs just like to play, Kallikragas let Pilot down. It wasn't the first time Kallikragas had been reassured by another dog owner that Pilot was safe to approach their pets.

'Pilot likes to play,' Kallikragas said.

When the dogs came 'tearing over', Kallikragas was again reassured twice there was nothing to worry about.

After the mastiffs started chasing Pilot, Kallikragas called to him. The smaller dog was coming to her when the two larger dogs caught up to him.

'He started running and stumbled. One (of the larger dogs) grabbed his neck and one grabbed his back,' she said.

She finally was able to get to her injured pooch and even after she grabbed him, one of the mastiffs tried jumping up on her to reach Pilot, she said.

Kallikragas made it home with Pilot and called an emergency veterinarian's line. She was told by the answering service the vet on call would give her a call back soon.

Wanting to get to the vet as soon as possible at 7 a.m., Kallikragas and her boyfriend headed down to Copper Road, travelling between the various veterinary buildings and continuing to try to reach the on-call vet, only to be told the vet would call back.

It was only at 7:30 a.m., about an hour after the incident happened, that Kallikragas was finally called only to be told the office would open at 8 a.m. and the vet would be in at that point.

'I'm hysterical and screaming, My dog is dying!'' Kallikragas recalled, noting Pilot may have already passed away at that point.

Finally a vet tech showed up at the Copper Ridge Veterinary Clinic while Kallikragas' boyfriend drove to another nearby vet.

Both were horrified the on-call emergency vet had told her and her boyfriend to wait until opening time.

Pilot was pronounced dead after the vet arrived.

The mauling has left Kallikragas questioning why the punishment under the Animal Control Bylaw is just a $150-fine for a dog bite to an animal and potentially a dangerous dog designation.

John Taylor, the city's manager of bylaw services, said this morning the mauling is being investigated.

That investigation will look at if there is enough evidence to support a charge, and if there is, exactly what that charge would be.

If the dogs are labelled dangerous, there could be numerous conditions set out. Among them are tattooing each of the animals, ordering that they couldn't be sold nor moved without the city's knowledge.

There can also be particulars set out for the type of enclosure the dogs would be held in and a condition that they must be leashed and/or muzzled at all times when they are outside.

A dangerous dog is defined in the city's animal control bylaw as 'any dog that (1) has bitten, injured, attacked or killed a domestic animal without provocation, on public or private property;

(2) has bitten, injured, or attacked a human being without provocation, on public or private property;

(3) is kept for the purpose of providing security or protection to persons or property; and/or

(4) has shown the disposition or tendency to be threatening or aggressive'.

A necropsy, ordered as part of the investigation, is expected to take about a week. Taylor was unsure just how long the entire investigation will take.