No picture came through. Try posting the pic in comments, sometimes that works.

iguanas eat the entire plant.

I bet if you track down who ate the leaves off of your eggplant plant, you might have your culprit.

A groundhog dug into my garden and ate every leaf off the peppers. He left the tomatoes and potatoes alone.

Sorry for your loss. I live in Indiana and after having a garden for over 40 years, I realized that I had to have a tall fence, lined at the bottom with smaller-holed fencing and a solar electric fence around the whole thing. And there's still things that can get in from underground/overhead. Again, sorry for what happened. But you might have to create impermeable barriers. It can be a real challenge.