A DOG lover has spoken of her anguish after two rottweilers pounced on her tiny Yorkshire terrier and mauled it to death.

Jackie Rushworth was enjoying a morning stroll with her two terriers, Toby and Tilly, when the tragedy happened.

Mrs Rushworth, a school kitchen assistant, of Clare Drive, Greenhill, near Herne Bay, says she has been having nightmares ever since the attack which claimed Toby's life.

She said: "I’ve got to move on but I just don’t know how. Toby was my baby.”

Speaking about the attack she saID: "I was going to my friend’s house when I heard this barking. My dogs barked back.

“I rang my friend’s doorbell but as I waited for her to answer, the rottweilers came running up, pushed past me and grabbed hold of Toby.

“He was on a lead but they pulled him right off his collar. My friend opened the door and Tilly ran in but the rottweilers had Toby in their mouths, one at each end. They were shaking him like a rag doll.

“I don’t know quite how I managed it but I got hold of both the rottweilers by their necks and pulled them off. The owners eventually came out and took them away.”

Toby, who was due to turn seven in September, was still alive when Mrs Rushworth picked him up and held him in her arms.

“His fur was all split, he looked like a skinned rabbit,” she said. He was taken immediately to the Animal House Veterinary Surgery in Herne Bay but was pronounced dead shortly afterwards.

“The vet said he may have died of shock,” said Mrs Rushworth, who lives with husband Andy, a London Underground worker and daughter Bethany, a 13-year-old pupil at Herne Bay High.

Mrs Rushworth added: “I feel such a mixture of sadness and anger.”

It is believed the two rottweilers escaped from the garden of their owner’s home after a gate had been left open. Police and RSPCA officials are investigating the incident.