Woman demanding action after 2 unleashed pit bulls mauled her dog to death

BROOKLYN (WABC) -- A dog owner is struggling with the loss of her dog after it was mauled to death by two pit bulls on her own front lawn in Brooklyn.

She says the unleashed dogs attacked her pet of 11 years right in front of her.

"They were right on my chest, one on each side, I was scared they would eat me," Regina Nicholson said.

Nicholson said a pair of huge pit bulls charged at her and ended up killing her 11-year-old dog named Bella.

The grandmother of three spoke exclusively to Eyewitness News.

"I was holding onto Bella, let her go, they were trying to take Bella , I wouldn't let her go," Nicholson said.

She said the violent incident unfolded in front of her home in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn on July 6th.

She said she took Bella, who was on a leash, out for a walk but didn't get far.

She said she looked up and saw the dogs with no one was around and they were off leash.

"I picked Bella up, coming up the steps and I got bitten, I didn't know they followed me," Nicholson said.

Nicholson said she tripped and the pits pounced.

"I just remember that frantic scream, like somebody died," neighbor Lynette Jeremiah said.

"They snatched Bella away from me, I ran upstairs the stairs and got my phone," Nicholson said.

She followed the dogs, around the corner to Church Lane and took pictures of the dogs.

She said a man pulled up in an SUV and drove off with the dogs.

Nicholson went back home and saw Bella dead on the front lawn.

"She was my companion, she doesn't deserve to die that way," Nicholson said.

Lynette says she's saw the dogs in a fenced-in area and complained to another man who lives there about the dogs barking all night.

Lynette said the man told her he got them because people are stealing everything he has on his property.

David insists the dogs aren't his.

He says the man in the SUV sometimes lives in a truck with the animals, parked on his street.

"Last time over here I saw him, I told him take the dog out and he took the dog out," David said.

Nicholson was not seriously hurt but she was so traumatized that she spent four days in the hospital in the cardiac unit.

Police did take a report of the incident.

Regina is determined and says the man must be held accountable.

I want those pit bulls, they are vicious, they have to be put down," Nicholson said.

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