Mother-of-five Tania Isbester has been fighting to save Izzy from being put down since the dog was seized by Knox City Council officers in June last year.

Barrister Graeme McEwen, founder of the Barristers Animal Welfare Panel and one of the lawyers working pro bono to help Ms Isbester, confirmed the case would go to the High Court after Ms Isbester lost her last-ditch appeal to save Izzy in the Court of Appeal.

The council had given an undertaking not to kill Izzy before Wednesday to give Ms Isbester's lawyers time to file an application for special leave to appeal to the High Court. The application is expected to be filed on Tuesday.

Mr McEwen described the case as a "David and Goliath" contest.

He said Melbourne councils generally were using euthanasia as a management tool and did not understand how nearly all dogs were capable of being rehabilitated.

"It's never too late in terms of the dog," Mr McEwen told Fairfax Media. "The dog should not be a scalp."

Ms Isbester owned three Staffordshire terriers - Izzy, Jock and Bub - which had been involved in a number of attacks on other dogs after repeatedly escaping from her backyard in The Basin, east of Melbourne.

Ms Isbester pleaded guilty in the Ringwood Magistrates Court in September last year to 20 charges under the Domestic Animals Act 1994, including a claim Izzy had bitten Ms Jennifer Edwards causing her a 'serious injury'.

It was alleged Ms Edwards was bitten on the finger by Izzy when attempting to pull Izzy off her daughter's dog. The bite caused a 1.5cm laceration on Mrs Edward's middle right finger.

Ms Isbester was placed on a 12-month community corrections order before a specially convened Knox City Council panel held a hearing to decide Izzy's fate.

The Court of Appeal said that during the hearing, Ms Isbester claimed Ms Edwards had only suffered a scratch and there was no evidence Izzy had been the dog which nipped her.

Ms Isbester told the panel she did not believe Izzy was dangerous and she would never keep a nasty dog near her children.

Angelo Kourambas, the council's director of city development, later informed Ms Isbester that the council panel had decided Izzy had to be destroyed.

In his letter to Ms Isbester, Mr Kourambas said: "The Knox community should be allowed to walk their dogs in public freely, without fear of attack by dogs that are aggressive. Your dog attacked a person causing a serious injury in August 2012. Subsequently as a result of you not taking appropriate action to confine your dog or to address its
aggression, your dog was involved in two attacks on dogs and people in June 2013."

Ms Isbester appealed the decision to the Supreme Court and lost before taking the case to the Court of Appeal which also rejected her appeal.

Following the Court of Appeal decision, the Barristers Animal Welfare Panel's website declared that the Domestic Animals Act provided an absurdly low threshold for what constituted a "serious injury".

"Even though a dog, for example, may only have nipped or cut the skin (without any puncture wound whatsoever), it is deemed a 'serious injury' under the Domestic Animals Act 1994," the website said.

Ms Isbester, who has five children aged from three to 15, said Izzy was a much-loved member of the family and everyone called her 'mama bear'.

"Izzy is kind of our 'go to' dog," Ms Isbester told Fairfax Media.

"If anyone is sad she knows it and makes you feel better about life. It's been really difficult not having her around for so long. She's like an extra child," she said.

"I try not to talk about her because I always cry."

Ms Isbester said Izzy did not deserve to be put down and if she did not fight to save her, it would be even more difficult for the next person in a similar situation.

"I don't want anyone to go through what we've been through."

Ms Isbester bought Izzy for her seven-year-old daughter Tahliya, who she said was finding it hard to cope without the dog and often makes up songs about how much she's missing her.