A FAMILY has been left devastated after witnessing their puppy being mauled to death by a Rottweiler at Frensham Little Pond.

The brutal attack took place at the National Trust-managed beauty spot and popular dog walking site at around 5.45pm on Saturday, July 21.

Tony and Charmain Hewison, together with their nine year old son Timothy and his friend Clara, also nine, were walking their 13 week old Jackapoo puppy Molly and older dog Tilly along the northern bank of the pond, when they heard a “horrifying scream” after the Rottweiler slipped its owners’ grasp.

The bigger dog attacked the puppy as the family looked on in horror and, according to Tony, crushed poor Molly’s skull in its jaws and “shook her like a rag doll”, killing her instantly.

After fighting the Rottweiler and punching it hard on the nose, Tony managed to prise Molly free but knew that it was too late and called the police immediately.

The Rottweiler’s distressed owner apologised profusely, but an angry exchange followed as Tony demanded the dog be destroyed - a view he still held when speaking to the Herald on Monday, warning “next time it could be a child”.

Tony added the Rottweiler, along with a Husky owned by the same woman, had attacked a Staffordshire terrier just minutes earlier on Saturday, but on that occasion the bigger dog was muzzled.

This muzzle was removed by the time the same dog attacked Molly, however, and Tony has questioned why such a dangerous animal was not kept under better control.

Still reeling from the incident, he added Molly was “our little angel” and vowed never to return to Frensham Little Pond.

A day after the attack, Tony and Charmain’s older daughter Sadie Oliver shared news of the incident on Facebook and her post was shared 600 times in just one hour - and many thousands of times since.

Tony said his family have been touched by the outpouring of goodwill, and now hope to contact the owner of the Staffordshire terrier also attacked on Saturday to serve as a witness to the incident.

Sadie wrote: “We are looking for a lady. She was there with her daughter she had a white staffie and the owner of the Rottweiler also had a husky that got aggressive towards the staffie.”

Anyone with information relating to the incident is encouraged to call or text Tony on 07595923220.

More to follow in this week’s Herald, on sale Thursday…