A couple from California have been left devastated after their four dogs were killed in a freak attack by a swarm of bees.
Rebecka Lopez and Daniel Giron live with their children at their home in Palmdale, California.
Ms Lopez was at home last Thursday with her family’s four dogs, two English bulldogs, Sansa and Pancake and two Dobermans, Drogo and Khalessi, who were playing in the garden.
All of a sudden, she saw her pets start to panic and become frantic as a swarm of bees ambushed their backyard and attacked the helpless canines, she told ABC7.
Ms Lopez video-called her husband, who was at work at the time, to show him what was going on.
"When she flipped over the camera, I saw my poor little Sansa covered in bees trying to swat them away, rolling around in the ground, and she tried to run to safety, said Mr Giron to the outlet.
“My spouse sat there behind the window, unable to open it because our kids were inside," he continued.
A firefighter was called to deal with the mass bee attack, according to KCAL.
The couple described the attack as “swift and overwhelming” and left the dogs with hundreds of stings, they wrote on their GoFundMe page.
Khalessi died of her injuries— (GoFundMe)
After the horrific encounter with the bees, the couple rushed their four dogs to the vet, but it was too late for three of them, including Pancake, who was just a puppy.
When they first arrived at one vet, they claimed on their fundraising page that they were turned away as the couple did not have enough funds for an “emergency of this scale.”
Pancake was just a puppy when she had to be put down— (GoFundMe)
After visiting another vet, they were forced to put Pancake down; Sansa and Khalessi then died due to their injuries hours later.
"It seemed like thousands of bees. If I remember correctly, the vet said she pulled out 900 stingers from our puppy Pancake’s ears," said Giron.
Drogo was the only one who survived the initial attack, but after six days of fighting for his life, he too, sadly passed away.
After a hefty amount of veterinary bills, the couple could not afford to cremate their dogs, so they have been buried in their back garden, their graves marked with flowers.
Sansa also succumbed to her injuries after the bee attack— (GoFundMe)
“I know it was hard for him, and it was just one by one by one that we had to bury,” Ms Lopez told KCAL.
After the horrific incident, the couple returned home and started to warn their neighbours of the swarm of bees that just struck tragedy on their family.
One of their neighbours allegedly told them that the bees belonged to them and had escaped, reports ABC7.
"His negligence – our dogs had to suffer and pay for. I hate the night because I’m going to have nightmares about what happened again,” Mr Giron told the outlet.
“In the morning, I hate waking up because I would always see them sunbathing right here by the window every morning, and when I wake up, I don’t see them anymore.”
The family told local outlets they are looking into taking legal action over the death of their four beloved pets and have set up a GoFundMe page to help with their vet bills.
