'They tore her apart:' Pit bulls attack North Carolina woman's pet Chihuahua

HARNETT COUNTY, North Carolina -- A morning walk turns deadly for a Harnett County woman's dog. Mary McNeilly said two pit bulls attacked her Chihuahua named Layah right before her eyes.

It happened Monday morning in her backyard, and she's calling on officials to get these dogs off the streets.

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"They pulled her apart," McNeilly said. "They tore her apart."

McNeilly didn't know the walk with her 14-year-old blind-and-deaf pet would be the last. She said the neighbor's two pit bulls approached as she walked outside her back door.

"They came around the corner of the house and got her. Each one of them had a part of her," McNeilly said.

It's a part of McNeilly's family she'll never get back.

McNeilly said the dogs tore Layah's body apart and carried what was left of her off to the woods. Thirty minutes later they returned.

"They came back out, but there was no dog. They couldn't find any remains or anything. So my little dog is out there," McNeilly said.

She still has three other dogs to look after. Her son, Wayne is monitoring the property closely to make sure those vicious dogs don't attack the others, but he says this isn't the first encounter they've had.

"Three months ago or two months ago, they would come after me," Wayne McNeilly said.

Since the attack, officials with Harnett County Animal Services have identified the neighbor's pit bulls as potentially dangerous.

But McNeilly said that doesn't change the fact that Layah is gone forever.

"She needs to be remembered for the horrible death she had," McNeill said.