The victim of a vicious dog attack that shocked the nation 15 years ago has today spoken publicly for the first time of the nightmares she still suffers.
In an EXCLUSIVE interview with the Telegraph & Argus, Rukhsana Khan, now 21 years old, relived the terrifying ordeal she suffered when she was thrown around like a rag doll in the street by a raging pit bull terrier when she was just six.
It took a group of men using bricks and sticks to beat the dog off her before she could be taken to hospital with more than 30 wounds from the dog's attack.
In the wake of her ordeal in 1991, the Dangerous Dogs Act was rushed through Parliament, but now she is backing the Telegraph & Argus campaign to make the law much tougher to prevent anyone else suffering as she did.
Rukhsana still bears the physical and mental scars of the attack on her as she played near her home in Wood Street, Manningham, as a young girl.
She said: "I still have nightmares about the attack and I am still terrified of dogs to this day.
"When I see a dog I freeze I don't think that will ever change."
Witnesses of the attack in May 1991 described how she was shaken like a "rag doll" in the jaws of the ferocious animal.
She suffered 23 wounds to her back and eight to her front, including her face, before a group of men rescued her by beating the dog off with bricks.
For fifteen years she has refused to talk publicly about her terrifying experience, but now she has bravely taken the decision to give her backing to the T&A's Curb The Danger Dogs campaign for tougher laws.
She said: "I fully support the T&A's campaign to stop the menace of dangerous dogs.
"The law was changed because of an attack on me 15 years ago, but today these attacks are still taking place and people are suffering terrible injuries.
"I have to live with the memory of the attack and the scars for the rest of my life. I do not want another child to have to go through what I did.
"The Government must prevent another attack by updating the law to make it tougher."
Our campaign is calling for the Government to ensure that: l Compulsory registration for ALL dogs is introduced rather than the current system which limits it to certain breeds.
l ALL dogs are microchipped to allow ownership to be traced.
l Mandatory life bans from dog ownership are introduced for anyone convicted of having a dangerous dog.
l A record of control orders is kept on every dog's registration.
l A specific offence of allowing a dog to stray is added to the Act with fixed penalty fines for owners to prevent dogs being out of control at any time.
Rukhsana said she was shocked when she read in the T&A that her former teacher Sue Brown had also been attacked by a dog in July this year as she walked in Heaton Woods.
She said: "I couldn't believe it when I heard about Miss Brown. It is a tragic coincidence that she was bitten as well because she was my teacher at school when I was attacked and she came to visit me in hospital.
"If by speaking out I can get the law toughened then I will have helped prevent someone else suffering."
Terry Singh, the city's dog warden manager, said: "The current law is unworkable.
"It needs to be changed to make it more effective in reducing the number of attacks by dangerous dogs."
Mr Singh said the key to making the law more effective was to make owners more responsible for the actions of their dogs.
"Owners have to be made more responsible for the actions of their dogs," he said.
"They have to know that if their dog bites someone they will be solely responsible."
He said a compulsory registration system would mean that all dogs were linked to their owners who could then be prosecuted if the dog attacked even if they were not with the dog at the time.
He said: "This would enable us to prosecute owners, use control orders effectively and keep a record of dogs who have attacked."
Yesterday the T&A reported that Bradford Council has also thrown its weight behind the campaign as a motion to lobby the Government to strengthen the Act received cross-party support from councillors who unanimously voted it through.
Councillor Mohammed Masood (Con, Heaton), who tabled the motion, said he wanted irresponsible dog owners whose animals attacked people "brought to justice".
Copyright Telegraph & Argus, September 2006.
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