Rugby league legend Andy Gregory has added his weight to the Telegraph & Argus Curb the Danger Dogs campaign.

The former Great Britain star, who is recovering after a rottweiler attack, described the campaign as "positive and long overdue".

The 13-stone former scrum-half was savaged as he walked his two dogs near his home.

He bravely punched the rottweiler repeatedly in the head after it knocked him to the ground and mauled him. It sank its teeth into his side causing a football-sized bruise.

Mr Gregory, 45, who lives in Wigan, said the beast, which was on a lead, went for his Jack Russell terrier but the little dog dodged its jaws.

He had turned to make sure his elderly dalmatian was out of danger when the rottweiler charged and felled him.

He said: "The next thing I knew I was on the floor. I had to knock it off me. I was in shock and scarcely knew what was going on.

"God knows what would have happened if it had been a woman walking her dog or a grandmother with a child. I weigh more than 13 stone but it caught me off balance - if I had been 18 stone it would have still knocked me down."

Mr Gregory needed hospital treatment for his injury and still has eight teeth marks in his side.

He gave a statement to the police but says no action has so far been taken. He is insisting that further investigations are carried out.

He said: "If the victim had been a child, or anyone not as strong as me, this dog could have killed. Now it's done it to me, it'll do it again."

Although he does not want the dog destroyed, he said it should be muzzled, kept on the lead at all times and taken out only by a responsible person who can control it.

Mr Gregory welcomed our Curb the Danger Dogs Campaign, which was started after a series of dog attacks in the Bradford area including one on Sue Brown, 58, who was attacked by a rott-weiler off its lead in Heaton Woods, Heaton.

The T&A is calling on Home Secretary John Reid to toughen up the Dangerous Dogs Act in a bid to prevent more people falling victim to attacks.

In 1991, six-year-old Rukhsana Khan was left with horrific injuries after being mauled by a pit bull terrier. Her plight led to the introduction of the Act but a number of loopholes have prompted the T&A to start a petition to press for a further tightening of the laws.

Our campaign calls for compulsory dog registration for all breeds; microchipping of all dogs allowing owners to be traced; mandatory life bans from dog ownership for anyone convicted of having a dangerous dog; a record of control orders to be kept on a dog's registration; and for the creation of a specific offence of allowing a dog to stray.

HOW YOU CAN SIGN OUR PETITION

You can back our Curb the Danger Dogs Campaign by signing our petition, which will be submitted to the Home Secretary, John Reid.

We want to collect as many signatures as possible in the next month to show Mr Reid the strength of feeling in the district about the inadequacies of the Dangerous Dogs Act and to put pressure on him to better protect the public against dog attacks by acting on the changes to the law we have outlined on the petition.

You can support our campaign simply by adding your own name on the petition online at our publication's website www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk. Or you can print out the petition and ask family, friends and colleagues to sign as well. The more signatures we receive, the stronger our message.

But whatever you can do will add weight to our campaign and help to make it clear to Mr Reid the strength of public feeling regarding the desperate need to change the current law.

Remember, you need to return copies of the petition to the T&A (the address is at the foot of the form) by Thursday, October 12.

We will then submit all the forms we receive to the Home Office.

Click here to sign the petition on-line

Or click here to download a copy of the petition to print out

e-mail: newsdesk@bradford.newsquest.co.uk