A woman whose tiny pet was snatched from her arms and mauled to death by an escaped pit bull has called for owners of dangerous breeds to understand the potential for danger.

Ieisha Tucker-Minors described the moment of horror as the loose animal, which had been chasing chickens, charged at her and her daughter as they walked their two pets.

“The dog sounded like a horse coming up behind me,” she said of Sunday’s attack on Texas Road, in St David’s. “It was running so fast it skidded to stop itself.

“I was telling my daughter to drop her bike and go for help — I figured it would be me or her, never even thinking he would attack my dog.”

As the woman clutched her two Yorkshire terriers to her chest, the animal tore one of them from her grasp with enough force to pop it off its leash.

What happened next left both the woman and her child traumatised on the day before her daughter’s tenth birthday.

But Ms Tucker-Minors stressed that she harbours no ill will toward pit bulls, or the dog’s owner, Prisons Commissioner Eddie Lamb and his wife Ruby, who were left devastated by the attack.

The two neighbouring families have agreed to settle the matter out of court.

“I’m a pet lover, I didn’t want to come across like I hate anybody,” Ms Tucker-Minors said. “What really upset me were the hurtful comments online from people saying my dog must have looked at the pit bull or provoked it.

“I want people to know what really happened. My dog was a loving dog who required a lot of attention, hugs and kisses, and he loved to go for walks. He didn’t do a thing.”

The marauding pit bull wasn’t alone, she said two of the dogs had escaped Lieutenant Colonel Lamb’s property, although one returned home without incident.

According to Lt Col Lamb, who wasn’t home at the time, the licensed pit bulls had been left secured in a fenced yard.

The pit bull that attacked was put down at once, Ms Tucker-Minors said.

“He suggested putting them both down, but I didn’t want that,” she added. “The other dog didn’t do anything to us, even though she was loose.”

Describing the circumstances of the attack, Ms Tucker-Minors said she’d decided to walk the dogs with her daughter riding her Christmas bike, along the stretch of private estate road.

They set off with their Yorkie dogs Bella and Milo, both leashed.

“My daughter spotted the dog first. She didn’t say what type, just said ‘Mummy, a big dog is farther up.’ I saw him chasing the chickens, which were flapping to get away, and I said we should turn around.

“There was a gentleman from the neighbourhood there admiring our dogs. My daughter looked back while riding and ‘Mummy, the dog is coming’.”

As she heard the charging pit bull bear down on them, Ms Tucker-Minors grabbed her two pets off the ground.

“Bella had a regular leash on. Milo had the type that can release and go longer or shorter, and the force of the pit bull knocking him released the lock. He jumped up and grabbed Milo out of my arms.”

She and her daughter began screaming as the pit bull ran with their pet into roadside trees and “shook him like a rag doll”.

The neighbour tried to intervene with a stick.

“I said, ‘Please, please, follow them’,” Ms Tucker-Minors said. “I had some hope that maybe he was just injured badly, and maybe we could save him.”

The pit bull took the dead animal back into its yard, and neighbours kept the family from seeing what had happened to their pet.

“I think that’s what saved me, because it didn’t come back. My daughter had run for help.”

She said that once Lt Col Lamb returned home, their shocked neighbours took responsibility immediately — although they have not revealed how the two dogs escaped their yard.

“They got my daughter a present for her birthday, and they’ve been calling and texting every day,” Ms Tucker-Minors said. “They’re being very supportive — it’s painful for both families.”

She said she believed her pet saved them from being attacked, and that Milo was laid to rest under a cedar tree on Tuesday.

“To me, that dog was like my child. He was at my feet from the time I woke up. When I came home from work he greeted me at the door.

“When I was cooking he’d sit there and watch every move. My house is very quiet now, and Bella is pining for him every night.

“When we drive home, my daughter covers her eyes. Last night I saw a pit bull on the drive home and I couldn’t even look at it.

“Emotionally, I’m really messed up. It just keeps going through my head, what I could have done. I hear the dog running at my dog and I hear his screams as the dog was shaking him.”

Her daughter was given counselling at East End Primary School and Ms Tucker-Minors said she was considering getting help herself.

“Everybody’s been very supportive but there are a number of pit bulls in our area that I’m aware of now. I won’t be walking my Bella on that road again.”

She continued: “The message I want to get out there is if you’re going to have these dogs, you have to know their full potential. They can be loving but they can also switch.

“It’s a big responsibility if you’re going to be the owner of one of these dogs. If something like this happens to a child, it’s going to be on your conscience.”

The Lambs offered to get the family a new dog, and Ms Tucker-Minors said they were still weighing their options in terms of getting a new pet.

She also suggested that a “doggy park” specifically for walking the increasingly small breeds popular on the Island might prove helpful.

Last night Lt Col Lamb, a friend of her husband Brent Minors Jr, told The Royal Gazette the family are “dear to us and we share their pain from this very sad and regrettable incident.

“Our family are very sensitive to all that has happened, especially to their adorable daughter. My wife and I are therefore committed to helping the Minors get through this ordeal.

“In all of life’s happenings, no matter how dreadful, there is a positive and I am confident that some good will emanate from all of this. Time will reap a harvest of goodness, I’m sure.”