A FATHER-OF-FOUR savaged by a powerful Japanese Akita dog has been told the animal does not have to be destroyed under the law.

Dave Taylor was attacked in his home by the dog, which he was minding for a friend, leaving him with a large scar, no feeling in his left arm and an injured back.

He also says the dog's jaws came within inches of his four-year-old son's face before he managed to wrestle it out of his Darlington flat.

But police have told the 35-year-old that because the dog, called Kane, was not out of control in a public place, it does not have to be destroyed.

Mr Taylor said the dog was tethered in the yard of his then home in Scargill Court, Firthmoor, when it broke free.

"It ran as hard as it could at the door and forced it open and then went down the passage to where my son Michael was asleep in bed," he said.

"It missed him by an inch. I had no choice but to try and stop him getting the bairn."

"He started ripping my arms to pieces with his teeth. I was screaming hysterically at my wife to get all four bairns out."

After half an hour, during which Mr Taylor says he temporarily passed out, he managed to bundle Kane back into the yard.

His wife Amanda, 26, called for an ambulance and paramedic John Snow bravely made his way past the dog to tend him.

Police then called owner Gordon Clark to remove Kane so Mr Taylor could be taken to Darlington Memorial Hospital. He was later transferred to Middlesbrough General Hospital to undergo plastic surgery.

Unemployed Mr Taylor, who now lives in Kexwith Moor Close, Darlington, wants the dog destroyed.

A Durham Police spokeswoman said a file was passed to the Crown Prosecution Service which said there was no case to answer.

Under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, because Mr Taylor was in charge of the animal at the time, it was he who could have faced prosecution.

The law also says that because the attack was not in a public place, there is no legal requirement for the dog to be destroyed.