AN ANIMAL lover has told how she was left too scared to go out after she was bitten on the arm in a dog attack.

Diane McLean was out walking her elderly Border Collie, Webster, when they were confronted by a neighbour’s Japanese Akita-Siberian Husky cross.

Mrs McLean, 58, was bitten as she tried to protect Webster, suffering a deep cut above the wrist and a broken bone which required surgery to insert a metal plate and screws which will have to remain for a year.

The dog’s owner, Maqzude Haaj, pleaded guilty at Bradford and Keighley Magistrates Court to being in charge of a dog dangerously out of control causing injury.

Haaj, 44, of Langdale Avenue, Fairweather Green, Bradford, was given a 12-month community order, with a requirement to carry out 60 hours unpaid work, and ordered to pay £250 compensation to Mrs McLean and £85 prosecution costs.

District Judge Richard Clews ordered that Haaj’s dog, Gizmo, should be muzzled and kept on a lead at all times as part of a contingency destruction order.

The court heard that Mrs McLean was walking her dog at Chellow Dene wetlands, in May,

The defendant was also walking his dog but it ran off after he let it off its lead.

It bit Mrs McLean on the left forearm. She screamed out in pain and a member of the public came to her aid.

Police were contacted but Mrs McLean told them she did not want the dog to be destroyed.

The court was told the defendant was of good character and the dog had not been involved in any previous incidents.

Haaj’s solicitor, Sultan Satti, said his client had owned the dog for six and a half years without any problems.

District Judge Clews said the dog was big and strong and he had to safeguard against any future risk.

Mrs McLean told the T&A: “I saw the dog approaching, as if it was stalking a prey.

“It all happened so quickly. I put my dog behind me. I shouted at the other dog to get away but his eyes went funny and he grabbed hold of my arm.

“The pain was horrible. I felt sick. I fell to my knees and couldn’t get up.”

She has had counselling and is now able to walk her dog out again.

She added: “I was adamant I didn’t want Gizmo destroyed. I didn’t want that on my conscience.”