A beloved pet sheep was discovered with its throat torn out after being fatally savaged by a killer dog.

The pregnant ewe named Miggledy was one of 16 sheep kept by smallholder Charlotte Kitching at her family home of Oakbank Farm, Wrose, Shipley.

The two-year-old pet, raised from a lamb and loved by her children, was due to give birth this spring, said distraught Mrs Kitching.

“It is just awful,” she said. “I went out to feed the sheep on New Year’s Day morning and there was Miggledy covered in blood.

“Amazingly she was still standing, but had massive bite wounds to her neck from a very powerful dog.

“Her jaw had been broken in the attack and where the flesh had been torn away you could see right through to the windpipe itself,” said Mrs Kitching, 38.

“I called the vet who came straight up and said it was a dog attack and had to put her down due to the serious injuries.

“I have two sons Arthur, five and George who’s two, and Miggledy was one of Arthur’s real favourites. He loved her and would come out with me to feed her and the other sheep.

“I’m so glad he didn’t come out that morning, I’ve tried to disguise what’s happened to her, but he knows something is wrong.”

She grew up at Oakbank Farm and said although there had been occasional incidents of theft, they had never suffered anything so horrific.

“A public footpath runs along the farm, which is only four acres and stands beside Wrose recreation ground, and over the years we’ve had a few things taken, but nothing like this.”

She suspects the owner of the killer dog probably knows just what it has done.

“Our field is properly fenced off and I think someone was with the dog when it jumped the wire and then managed to call it off half way through its attack. That’s why Miggledy survived.

“Either that, or someone’s dog has come home covered in blood, so they must know what’s happened.”

Mrs Kitching said she feared the dog would now kill again – either an animal or even a small child.

“I’ve moved the sheep to a field right by the farmhouse as I fear that dog will come back. Now it has got a taste for blood, it will want more.

“It will be a danger to animals and also to children – who know’s what could have happened if Arthur had been with his sheep when that dog attacked?” Mrs Kitching said.

“Whoever the owner is, they should have the dog put down straight away,” she said.