A PET owner tried to 'strangle' a 'vicious' dog moments after watching the 'wolf-like' canine savage his tiny Pomeranian to death on a Greenock street, a trial has heard.

The large Tamaskan dog 'rag-dolled' the much smaller animal at Kinloch Terrace, two months after pouncing on a West Highland Terrier and inflicting puncture wounds, the sheriff court was told.

Accused man Maciej Wisniewski, 57, is charged with owning a dog that was dangerously out of control and mauled the Pomeranian to death.

Wisniewski also allegedly failed to comply with a dog control notice imposed by Inverclyde Council following the attack on the Westie.

The Pomeranian's owner told the court how the larger dog jumped down onto a driveway and out onto the road on Kinloch Terrace while he was walking his usual route with his two pet pooches.

He said that he instantly pulled the extendable lead of the now deceased dog and managed to pick it up, but as it was dangling in mid-air Wisniewski's dog 'lunged at it'.

(Image: NQ)

The witness said: "I was trying to hold it up so that dog wouldn't get it. I was protecting my other dog against a bush but the big dog jumped up and grabbed my wee one.

"It pulled it onto the road and grabbed it on its leg. I had dropped the lead.

"I placed my other dog under a car to protect it, then I got onto the road and jumped on [the accused's] dog but by that time my wee dog was dead.

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"She was yelping but she died right away. It was rag-dolling it."

The man added: "I put all my weight on it, I was strangling it.

"Nobody appeared for what felt like a couple of minutes.

"I tried to strangle it before [the accused] eventually appeared and pulled me off his dog and I released it.

"They got the dog back into the house but the damage had been done."

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The witness said that Wisniewski — who appeared in the dock with a Polish translator — apologised for the deadly attack on November 14, 2022, and offered to buy him a new dog, whilst requesting 'no police'.

The man said: "I felt anger, sadness, disappointed.

"It gives you a bit of a fright but adrenaline kicks in. It all happened so fast."

The court also heard from witnesses to a separate incident on September 12, 2022, when Wisniewski's 'wolf-like' dog pounced on a Westie on the same street and caused puncture wounds to the animal - leaving its owners with a £185 vet bill.

One woman, who told the trial that she became aware of something happening when she heard her son screaming and found him crying at his bedroom window, said: "I looked out the window and heard a woman screaming.

"I saw the [accused's] dog with another wee dog in its mouth waving it about."

She said that the two animals were eventually separated by Wisniewski, with the injured dog left bleeding near its bottom and its female owner 'very, very shaken up and scared'.

Another witness said the woman was 'hysterical, she was absolutely terrified'.

A police officer who took to the witness stand said that Wisniewski's partner told officers who turned up at their home after the November attack that there was a dog control notice in place regarding their pet.

The court heard that the dog has since been sold and a notice has been served for its destruction.

Wisniewski denies the charges against him and the part-heard trial, before Sheriff James Varney, was adjourned until September 9.