A 10-year-old girl is devastated after her dog was attacked and killed by another dog this week.

Ellie Thomas, of St Margarets Road, had looked after Sammy for his whole life, but he was killed by another dog near Thistleworth Marine on Wednesday, November 14.

Ellie said: “I wish he was alive again. I miss him.”

Sammy, five, a butcher’s dog, was out for a walk with his dog walker at about 2.45pm when he was attacked by what the Thomas family believe was a Chinese husky.

The dog walker tried to hit the attacking dog away with the dog lead, but it had Sammy by the neck and no one was able to get close enough to move it off.

Ellie’s mum, Tracey Thomas said: “He had a lovely character. He was such a lovely dog. He was there all the time.”

Police have told the family they are unlikely to follow up on the incident because it is a dog-against-dog attack, but Mrs Thomas fears the dog could attack a child next.

Mrs Thomas said: “Sammy sort of protected Ellie. She’s devastated.”

Sammy leaves behind his two-year-old daughter, Rosie, who lived with him at the Thomas’s home above the family-run butchers and restaurant, where the dogs would occasionally get a few meaty treats.

Police are yet to comment on the incident, but tweeted that they were aware of it.