watch calmly from her car as her pet savaged another dog.

The woman was driving along South Road, Devonshire when she spotted a small chihuahua-type dog at the roadside, say observers. One of two pit bulls in the back of her car jumped out, chasing and then grabbing the smaller dog.

But the woman appeared to do nothing to stop the attack. Instead, say onlookers, she sat casually in her car and watched until the pit bull jumped back in.

Ignoring protests from other motorists and passers-by, she eventually sped off. And when a search was mounted for the small dog, it could not be found.

Landscaper Mr. John Bento, 25, was driving behind the woman when the incident happened near the Edmund Gibbons nature reserve at about 1 p.m.

"She slowed right down, creeping along alongside this little dog,'' he said.

"I thought it was hers and she was was trying to pick it up. But she stopped her car and one of the pit bulls jumped out and attacked the small dog. It chased it and basically just locked its jaws round it. The small dog managed to break free and the pit bull chased it into Gibbons gardens.

"She did absolutely nothing about it. She didn't call it off, she just sat in the car very nonchalantly.'' Mr. Bento said he passed the woman, hoping to turn around and help the dog.

"I saw the pit bull jump back into the car and she just drove off. It was almost as if she was feeding him lunch. I don't know whether he jumped in with the small dog in his mouth.'' Mr. Bento said he chased after the woman, who was driving a white Suzuki, but could not find her. A search for the small dog also proved fruitless.

"I have had pit bulls myself,'' he added. "I'm not not anti-pit bull in any way. I couldn't understand why she slowed down when she saw that very little dog. It was strange.'' Mr. Bento's girlfriend Ms. Janine Campbell, who was with him, said she was upset and shaken by the incident. "I have a love for animals,'' she added.

"It seemed very cruel of her to allow it and not try to stop it. It was like the little dog was a display for her dogs' excitement.

"I was just so angry. People can't be allowing their dogs to run around like that.'' Police are investigating a report that two dogs killed a duck belonging to a resident at the Railway Trail, Paget, yesterday morning.