Tracey Tennant, 48, said she’d lost her “best friend” after her 12-year-old rescue pooch, Liquorice, was 'ripped to pieces' in the ferocious attack over the weekend.

The mum-of-two was five minutes from her home, in East Ardsley, Leeds, when she was “knocked to the floor” by the dangerous mutt before it rounded on her defenceless dog.

Poor Liquorice wasn’t able to fight back against the other canine's viscous advances, with it's owner describing it as “friendly” just moments before the attack.

The distraught retail store manager brought the wounded pet in her blood-stained coat to an emergency vet, but he was sadly put to sleep the following day.

Tracey said she learned another dog had been attacked on the same day close by, with its owners providing a similar description for the vicious mutt that mauled Liquorice.

And she now thinks there should be harsher laws for owners of dogs that have attacked other animals or people.

She said: “There definitely needs to be a change in the law. I’m going through hell.

“We rescued Liquorice six years ago. He was a nightmare at first because he’d never lived in a house or any surroundings. But then he settled.

“If I ironed my clothes, he’d walk up and down by the ironing board while I finished. He came to bed with me every night.

“I even trained him not to chase cats. He didn’t have a bad bone in his body.

“Now, everything has just been taken away from me. I can’t get out of my head the trauma of what he went through.”

Tracey says her neighbours are “scared” to leave their homes for fear of future attacks.

And she believes her granddaughter Ava, 4, could have been another victim if she'd gone with her.

She said: “The dog just came charging around the corner and it literally knocked me to the floor.

“It then just ripped my dog to pieces, and before it attacked, the owner shouted to me ‘It’s friendly’. But it just came out of nowhere.

“He was my best friend. I created such a bond with him. I don’t feel like I have lost a dog. I feel like I have lost a person.

“I live on a lovely estate, but everyone is terrified to walk their dogs. Everybody is scared to go out.

“My little granddaughter grew up with him, and the scary thing is she used to walk with him down that path. It could have been her.”

Tracey said the attack unfolded at around 10am on Saturday morning (Dec 3) while she was walking along Buttercup Lane, a short distance from her home.

She didn't see the dangerous dog before it dashed towards her and believed it may have “smelled” her beloved greyhound before the brutal onslaught.

And Tracey said she’d chillingly heard the mutt's male owner, who hasn’t been identified, trying to call it back as his dog galloped towards defenceless Liquorice.

She said: “I think it smelled him as it didn’t see us. It was a Pitbull type breed with brown markings on it and a patch on its right eye.

“It didn’t go back to its owner, and he never called it by his name. As I recall, he shouted “come here!” Then he shouted, “get here, get here, get here.

“I was trying to stop it. I was with him the whole time. He tried to fight back, but he only has three teeth.”

Tracey said the dangerous dog's owner didn’t apologise or put his mutt back on a lead after the harrowing attack - and walked away without speaking a word to her.

And she was left to scoop Liquorice up in her coat and bring him to a vet with the help of two neighbours who had heard her devastating screams.

She said: “He said nothing to me. I said ‘I want your details’. But he just looked at me and walked away. He never put his dog on a lead.

“I took the coat off my back to try to stop the bleeding. I was screaming for help. Some lovely neighbours came out to help me. They rushed me straight to the emergency vet.

“They operated on him, and they thought he would be ok. But overnight, everything swelled up. They rang me to say that it would be cruel to keep him.”

It’s understood West Yorkshire police have launched an investigation into the incident and are trying to find dangerous dog and its owner.

Owner 'walks off' after Pitbull mauls and kills greyhound in Yorkshire