An eight-year-old girl has been left devastated after thugs launched a brutal attack on her tiny dog and left it for dead.

Sophie Jardine’s pug Roxy was found lifeless in the back garden of her home in Morton Street, Caldewgate, Carlisle, on Sunday night.

The four-year-old black pug has been left with slight brain damage, eye injuries and bruising to her head and ears – injuries that vets confirmed were consistent with being beaten. The severity of the attack has prompted her mum Stacey Yeoman (CORR) , 30, to appeal to anyone with information to come

forward to ensure those responsible are brought to justice.

“I’m speechless. I don’t even know what to think,” Stacey told the News & Star . “I have been walking around in a daze all day. I don’t know what to do with myself.”

Roxy was found in the back garden of Stacey and Sophie’s home by Sophie’s dad Lee Jardine, of Currock, when he went to visit them at about 8.15pm. Stacey said Lee thought Roxy was dead. “She was just lifeless and staring at the wall,” Stacey said.

She and her daughter were visiting friends at Newton Arlosh and rushed back to take Roxy to the vets.

Stacey said it’s likely that the attackers let themselves in through the front door, which she had left unlocked by mistake, before catching Roxy and inflicting the vicious attack.

She thinks the dog has been kicked and hit with sticks. Evidencesuggested they had also tried to flush her down the toilet. Sophie had saved up her pocket money and used her inheritance to buy Roxy two-and-a-half years ago.

“I feel happy when she is around,” said Sophie, a pupil at Robert Ferguson School. In an appeal to the public she said: “Can you help my dog please?” She added that she loves Roxy “100 per cent to the moon and back”.

“She is devastated. They can’t get away with it,” said Sophie’s grandma Sonia Yeoman, 47. “It’s really like someone has just taken your heart and wrenched it out.”

Chris Barker, veterinary surgeon at Ashlea Veterinary Centre, in Port Road Industrial Estate, said Roxy was suffering from a head tilt and repetitive twitching of the eyes – both symptoms reflecting damage in the head.

“The injuries are consistent with being beaten around the head,” he said. “As far as we are concerned, somebody has hit her.”

In terms of recovery he said it was a case of waiting. Roxy is now back at home with her family and will be assessed towards the end of the week.

Miss Yeoman reported the incident to Cumbria Police.

A spokeswoman for the force said: “We are investigating the report of a dog being injured in Carlisle. We believe this is an isolated incident.”

Police are also investigating the theft of a puppy. The young male Lurcher went missing between 2pm and 7.30pm on Friday from the garden of a home in Kilbride Place, Frizington. It is described as mainly white, with brown patches on each ear and a few brown spots along his back.

Witnesses or anyone with information are asked to contact police on 101.