Holly also suffered a broken femur and pelvis in the attack on Thursday afternoon and had to be put to sleep.
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| Mr and Mrs Stewart with their remaining dog, Tilly. |
Mrs Stewart had just returned from Ninewells Hospital with her husband Jim when she decided to take Holly and her other Chihuahua Tilly for a walk.
She told The Courier: ''I put the leads on and I just opened the gate and this huge dog just ran right in and grabbed hold of Holly.
''Holly's so fragile and it was tossing her about and I tried to get it off, but there was nothing I could do.''
Mrs Stewart said the brown Staffie was not on a lead and the attack only stopped when the owner heard her screams and dragged it away.
She said: ''I just took her to the nearest vet to get help for her. We left her and we went to the police to report it. We came home and the vet phoned and said that her injuries were so bad that she would have to be put to sleep.''
Mrs Stewart said she didn't think anything about the pain in her hands after the attack because everything happened so fast.
''I knew my hand was sore, but I never took any notice of it because I thought all the blood was coming from Holly. It wasn't until I got to the police station and they noticed the blood was spurting out of my hands.''
She was taken to the infirmary and puncture wounds on two fingers were bandaged up and she was given a tetanus jab.
Holly's playmate Tilly is also just as lost as Mr and Mrs Stewart following the brutal attack.
She said: ''She's just heartbroken. We all are.''
Her husband said the dog that killed Holly was a public danger and must be destroyed.
Alarmingly, it's the second time in just under a year that a Staffordshire terrier has killed a chihuahua in Arbroath, following an incident near Victoria Park last July.
Angus Help for Abandoned Animals chairman Ian Robb has been calling for tighter controls on the over-breeding of Staffies.
He has been supporting the Stewarts since Holly's death and said the owner of the dog that killed Holly had been a long-time breeder of Staffies.
Last year he travelled to urge Holyrood's petitions committee to consider clamping down on unlicensed breeders of the dogs, which have become a status symbol among criminals and drug dealers.
He said: ''The petition is irrelevent at this time, but this highlights the continued struggle that a charity like ours is having. We are trying to improve things in the community, but the people that matter are just not listening.
"At the time of the last dog attack Angus councillors came out and said they were going to put a stop to it but nothing has been done and it's people like this that suffer.
''You can see how emotional I am because it's a subject close to my heart. Our charity tries our best to do something for Angus, but we get no support.''
Police appealed for witnesses following the attack, asking anyone with information to contact them on 0300 111 2222.
(The Courier - June 6, 2012)
