Mum's heartbreaking plea after pet dog pinched by seagulls

A mother and daughter are distraught after the family's pet chihuahua was picked up from their backyard by a seagull and carried off.

Becca Hill, 24, has begged anyone for information about her miniature chihuahua, Gizmo, after he was taken from her UK home by a seagull at the weekend.

Hill's partner had been in the garden hanging out laundry when the tiny pup was attacked, the gull suddenly swooping down to lift the four-year-old dog into the air.

It then carried Gizmo out of sight, Hill now fearing that the pooch may have been dropped or injured.

"Please, please, please, anyone finds a chihuahua he's mine, a seagull took him from my garden," she begged on Facebook.

"Have a really upset 6 year old missing her dog."

Fortunately Hill's six-year-old daughter didn't witness Gizmo being carried away, however she is distraught over the missing family pet.

Hill and her family live in the seaside town of Paignton, Devon, and though seagulls are common there, attacks like this one are incredibly rare.

The RSPCA told The Sun that this is "not typical gull behaviour" and called the attack "extremely upsetting".

However, the tables are turned here in Australia where dogs are now being used to ward off seagulls around the Sydney Opera House and other gull hotspots.

The Opera House's 'seagull patrol' sees two dogs and their handlers go around the iconic location and surrounding restaurants scaring away the gulls, leading to a significant drop in seagull nonsense in the area.

Canadian airports have also been known to use dogs to chase gulls away, though in all cases the dogs are larger breeds that a single gull would have no change of flying away with.

Here's hoping that Gizmo is found and returned safely to Hill and her daughter – and maybe they could adopt a second dog to run seagull patrol in their own backyard.