Nano, the Jack Russell, was being cared for by a family friend on the weekend of October 7-8, when he was attacked by a neighbouring dog on Burrundulla Avenue.

The Turner-Eylander family were away on a holiday in Brisbane at the time.

Gabrielle Turner-Eylander explained her friend and the friend’s 5-year-old daughter took Nano for a walk on a leash on the Saturday morning.

“They were on the path and were next to a picket fence, in that yard there were two dogs.

“One of the dogs, a bull mastiff, reached over the fence and grabbed Nano by the head and the neck and pulled him into the yard and mauled him.”

She explained the offending dog ‘attacked him, shook him, bite him’ in front of her friend and the toddler.

The fence was only 93cm high.

“My friend was fearful of going into the yard, so they were screaming for help. In the end her husband heard them from a parallel street and drove around and he was able to rescue Nano.”

They took Nano to the vet on the Saturday but he passed away on the Sunday evening.

Gabrielle’s husband Matt returned to Mudgee on the Saturday for work and had to deliver the devastating news.

“He called me on the Sunday night and told me that he [Nano] was dying and he put me on speaker to talk to Nano,” she explained through tears.

“I had Nano for 10 years, he should have been right to live for many more.”

The family hope Nano’s death wasn’t in vain and are now raise awareness about adequately securing dogs in residential areas.

“There seems to be quite a few houses where I’ve been walking Nano over the last few months that don’t have a backyard, as such, just have a front fence and have their dogs with access to the front yard,” Gabrielle said.

“Quite a few times those dogs have got their heads and paws over those quite small front fences and they bark viciously and it’s frightening.”

“If people are too scared to walk past your house, that’s not responsible pet ownership,” she said.

“If your dog is capable of great violence, it shouldn’t be able to do that, you should be more responsible and have a backyard area.

“You can’t be blasé about the safety risk to the community. This could have been the 5-year-old, she could have been closer to Nano and could have been injured as well.”

The front fence requirement from the Mid Western Regional Council is stated as to ‘not exceed 1.2 metres in height’.

The owners of the offending dog have been issued a dangerous dog declaration.