Aviemore Sled Dog Rally
A neighbour said Sue Lopicich used to love canines and cared for rescue dogs. - Representational image Russell Cheyne/Reuters

Two dogs in the Perth suburb of Southern River mauled to death a woman in her 50s on Tuesday (1 August) afternoon.

Police said the woman named Sue Lopicich was attacked at the property on Terrier Place, which also serves as Barko's Boarding Kennel. She was declared dead by paramedics a short time later after her daughter found her body lying on the ground, ABC reported.

More from IBTimes UK

Lopicich's daughter got the shock of her life when she came looking for her mother after concerns were raised when she did not report for work at a local childcare centre.

The dogs – a bull mastiff and a Staffordshire bull terrier – were registered to the owner of the property and there were no complaints against them earlier, a council spokesman said. He added that the dogs have been seized and impounded by rangers after they received a call to the property in the afternoon to collect a dog that was preventing police from accessing the woman's body.

"One would think that if ... police find the dogs caused the death, then you would assume that the dogs would be put down," Director of Governance Grant Bradbrook said while waiting for further instructions from the police before deciding what action, if any, would be taken with the animals.

Meanwhile, a neighbour, who did not want his identity to be revealed, said the dogs were very aggressive and had to be tied up when anyone visited the woman's house. He also said that one of the dogs involved in the gruesome death of Lopicich had been living on the property for about four years.

Another neighbour Kerrie Pearce said the woman used to love canines and cared for rescue dogs. Pearce added that earlier there had been a number of dog fights at the property and Lopicich got injured several times trying to break them up.

"I never liked what she did down there, she used to just mingle them in together and you can't mingle them together, you've got to keep them separate. She liked to have them as like a pack, but you can't have rescue dogs as a pack," she said.