A family is heartbroken after a pet dog escaped from their home and was shot dead.

Nicole Watt said they were devastated by the killing of their Japanese Akita, called Oscar.

He is thought to have been shot near Brown Lee Lane, Wilsden, on Tuesday evening last week.

The incident preceded the shooting of two other dogs, in Denholme, on Monday, as reported in the T&A.

Mrs Watt, of Cullingworth, said the two-year-old escaped, along with Tia, a Siberian husky, because her son's friend accidentally left a security gate open.

"I'd left for work at 3.45pm and by 4.45pm a lad came along to say that the dogs were out," she said.

During the afternoon and evening she and husband Gary searched for the dogs, keeping in touch with the dog warden and police.

Mrs Watt, who has three sons - Curtis, 16, Otis, 13, and Wesley, 11 - and a three-year-old daughter Caitlin, said she had a phone call from the Bradford Council dog warden on Wednesday morning to say the dogs had been found but one was dead.

She said they had always been very careful to make sure the dogs did not escape.

"We built almost a fortress around the house to keep them in," she said.

"There's a six-foot fence and two gates.

"My children had it drilled into them to keep the gates closed."

She said the family, which also has a three-year-old Akita called Stella, was struggling to come to terms with the loss of Oscar.

"I loved Oscar to bits. He was a nervous dog - more of a scaredy-cat," she said.

"We used to have a chicken and he was more worried about it than it was of him.

"The whole family is gutted. Oscar was such a close part of the family."

Mrs Watt has not made a formal complaint to police.

Officers are still investigating the shooting on Monday of a Dalmation on a countryside footpath in Denholme.

Children of Dot Nicholls were walking their pets off the leash when a man fired two shots at the animals, killing one and wounding the other.