A dog has been traced back to his owner because it had been micro-chipped.

Buster, a bull terrier cross, accidentally escaped from his owner's home in Abbots Wood, Heaton, Bradford, after chasing a cat.

He was picked up by Bradford Council dog warden service the next day when a postman reported a dangerous dog in Chellow Grange Road.

Owner Mark Campbell, 29, had Buster micro-chipped a year ago.

He said: "He's not an aggressive dog, but when he barks he can be quite intimidating."

Mr Campbell spent two hours looking for Buster and phoned the police and the dog warden. He said: "I was so relieved when he was traced and would advise people to get their dogs micro-chipped."

Terry Singh, the dog warden manager, said: "This incident shows the need for all dogs to be properly controlled and to be linked to their owner through an identification system such as micro-chipping."

The compulsory micro-chipping of all dogs is one of the aims of the Telegraph & Argus Curb the Danger Dogs Campaign.

We are also calling for compulsory dog registration, mandatory life bans from ownership for anyone convicted of having a dangerous dog, a record of control orders and 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 Secre-tary, 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 dis-trict about the inadequacies of the Dangerous Dogs Act and to put pressure on him to better protect the public against dog at-tacks 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 feel-ing 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, Oc-tober 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