A vicious dog attack in Bradford in 1991 left six-year-old Rukhsana Khan with appalling injuries which shocked the nation and pushed the Government into drawing up the Dangerous Dogs' Act.

Fifteen years on, it has become increasingly clear that that hurriedly-drafted legislation is deeply flawed.

Horrific dog attacks on children as well as adults regularly occur in our district and elsewhere across the country because major omissions in the Act are failing to protect the public.

Other loopholes mean that some dog owners - who, after all, are really to blame for ignoring or failing their responsibility to control their animals - often escape any form of prosecution.

Our sister newspaper, the Telegraph & Argus, has launched a campaign to toughen up the Act in five key areas, and 21-year-old Rukhsana has given it her backing, speaking publicly for the first time since her terrible ordeal in 1991.

This week Rukhsana relived the time 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."

. The Telegraph & Argus Curb the Danger Dogs Campaign is intended to persuade 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 dogs' 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 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, Bradford Council's Dog Warden Manager, deals with the Dangerous Dogs Act legislation every day of his working life. His damning verdict is that it is "unworkable."

And he says the Act desperately needs to be strengthened to help reduce the number of attacks by dangerous dogs.

The vast majority of dog owners are responsible citizens but, as so often is the case, it is the lawless minority who cause the problems.

The attack on Rukhsana a decade and a half ago opened an appalled nation's eyes to the dangers caused by out-of-control dogs. There can be no excuse for the Government to fail to ensure that the law is updated to protect the public.

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".

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 publi-cation'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