By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Three brutal slashes of a blade have maimed a gentle-natured pet in her family’s Doveton backyard.
RSPCA are investigating the unthinkably cruel acts that sliced through the right eyeball of Mia, a four-year-old Staffordshire-Mastiff cross, in Leigh Court about 9pm in 13 July.
Her shocked owners Gino Nayna and Katherine Antonopoulos had only been out for five minutes when they got a phone call from Casey Council telling them Mia had been attacked.
Apparently, someone had reported the attack to Endeavour Hills police, who in turn got in touch with the council.
The couple found Mia bleeding profusely by the back door, and the side-gate into their backyard was left wide open.
“I nearly vomited three times,” Ms Antonopoulos said.
“I just felt sick after what happened – and just angry.”
It cost $4000 surgery to stitch up Mia’s eye but it might not be enough to restore her vision.
The family suspect a neighbour who has complained often about Mia’s occasional barking.
“I asked him: ‘Do you know anything about someone slicing my dog?’” Mr Nayna said.
“He turned his back on me and said: ‘I don’t want to talk about it.’”
A nearby resident claims the same man once kicked their dog as a puppy, and had an intervention order against the man.
The shocking attack comes just four months after the family moved into the quiet court.
In the meantime, Ms Antonopoulos suffered a broken leg in a car crash. Mr Nayna is still suffering the ill-effects from being savagely king-hit at a McDonald’s outlet in St Kilda four years ago.
Dr Chloe Hardman, a vet who performed surgery to repair Mia’s eye, said she’d never seen such a malicious injury to a pet. It had deeply distressed staff at her clinic, Melbourne Eye Vet.
It would have taken significant force to pierce the cornea’s thick collagen layer as well as cutting Mia’s nose to the bone , Dr Hardman said.
The blade used would not have been serrated and not necessarily long – the wound could have been inflicted even using a pocket knife, she said.
Mia had been an “amazing patient”, remaining very friendly despite the traumatic incident.
Often dogs would instead turn into a “fear-to-aggression biter”, but Mia wasn’t, she said.
“She’s such a sweet dog. It was amazing that she didn’t fight back (during the attack).
“She must have been terrified.”
