A TEENAGER is recovering at home after being attacked by a dog on her paper round.

Alison Prisley, 14, spent four days in hospital and needed an operation on her arm after the Japanese Akita attacked her while she was delivering a newspaper.

The dog’s owner eventually managed to pull the animal off but the schoolgirl was left with deep cuts along her arm, some as long as two inches.

Police are now investigating the incident but Alison, of Birkdale Close, Chestfield, near Whitstable, said that she did not want to see the dog destroyed.

"I don’t want to ever see that dog again but I don’t want it to be put down," she said.

The Community College pupil, who has a dog of her own, did not realise the animal was loose in the garden when she went to deliver the paper.

She said: "I had seen the dog before in its garden but this time I didn’t see it, and when I opened the gate, it ran at me.

"I thought it wanted a stroke but it bit me and it got my arm. The owner came running and was trying to pull it off but it had my arm for about 10 or 15 seconds. I was so scared and really shocked."

* FULL STORY IN THIS WEEK'S WHITSTABLE GAZETTE.