A 72-YEAR-OLD has said she will "never get over" her heartbreak after her pet dog was beaten with a hammer and had to be put down.
Violet McElreavey left her five-year-old Jack Russell, Buster, in the garden of her home in Coleraine, Co Derry, while she went to church on the morning of October 12.
When she returned to her home in Maple Drive in the town she noticed Buster did not immediately come when she called and later crawled through the door on his belly.
"I gave him his food and he couldn't keep it down," she said.
"When I took him to the vet, he said that his stomach and organs were all pushed up, that's why he couldn't eat."
Ms McElreavey, who lives alone, said the vet told her nothing could be done for Buster.
The pet had to be put down several days later.
Police later told her that Buster had been attacked several times with a blunt object.
"I loved that wee dog to bits," she said.
"He was a great wee thing. Everyone took to him.
"I'll never, ever get over this."
Ms McEleavey, who has hearing difficulties, said Buster would bark when someone came to the door or the phone rang.
"Jack Russells are very intelligent," she said.
"Whenever I had the pan on and the smoke alarm went off, he'd call out to me and wait as if to see if I was coming.
"Now I have to listen out for the phone and often I can't hear it."
The pensioner said Buster had been badly treated as a puppy and was nervous around strangers.
"He didn't like men because it was a man that was bad to him," she said.
"I gave him a good home." Police have appealed for information.
Earlier this month, a pet Labrador, Kenya, was shot dead in the Cotton Road area of Bangor.
Just the day before, two men were jailed in connection with a savage attack on a Co Antrim family's pet dog.
Cody, a three-year-old border collie, died two weeks after being set alight in August 2012.
It was the first time custodial sentences were imposed in Northern Ireland under animal cruelty legislation that came into effect in 2011.