A grandmother who is an animal lover has been mauled to death by a pit bull she rescued as a starving stray from the street.

Anne Shields, a British ex-pat living in Spain, named the dog Choccy after taking him into her holiday home in Macastre, near Valencia.

Her daughter told The Sun she wanted to put Choccy in a local shelter, but was told they had no space.

‘She was an animal lover and couldn’t bear the thought of throwing Choccy back on the streets,’ Sarah, 43, said.

Ms Shields decided to care for the stray until she could found him a home – but Choccy suddenly turned on her.

Neighbours alerted the police after hearing screams from the property, and they arrived to find the former security guard with ‘catastrophic’ head and arm injuries.

Officers shot the dog to give medics a chance of saving the pensioner.

She was rushed to hospital, but she died the following day.

‘It’s a nightmare,’ Sarah, from Preston, added. ‘She stuck with him and then this happened.’

Pit bulls are a banned breed in the UK, but they can be owned in Spain with a licence as they are ‘potentially dangerous’.