THIS little girl may be left scarred for life after being attacked by a dog.

Four-year-old Chaya Powell’s eyelid was ripped, lip and a tear-duct damaged, face severely scratched and skin between her eyes cut down to the bone when the husky-type dog, belonging to her mother’s former step-father, injured her.

The Chepstow youngster needed specialist facial surgery to re-align her eyelid and apply 12 stitches to her wounds.

The incident happened at their home in Bulwark at around 4pm on Tuesday, when Chaya and her mother, Sian James, were looking after two-year-old Storm for its owner, Emlyn James.

Ms James, 29, said her daughter called “let’s go for walkies” and claimed Storm lurched forward, lifted the little girl off the floor with its paws and teeth and attacked her face for around ten seconds.

Terrified Ms James said she kicked the dog repeatedly in the head until it dropped blood-soaked Chaya, who was hysterical with fear and pain.

Chaya was rushed to Newport’s Royal Gwent Hospital by ambulance to undergo facial surgery and returned home yesterday.

Doctors say she needs around four weeks off from Thornwell School to recover and was lucky not to lose the sight in one eye, but may suffer some permanent scarring.

Both Ms James and her former step-father said police officers told them no charges would be brought and Storm would not be destroyed, because the incident took place on private property and the dog’s breed was legal.

But Ms James believes Storm should be destroyed.

She said: “If it had happened on the street outside, they probably would’ve destroyed it. The laws should be changed.”

Mr James, 58, said he was shocked at what happened, because the dog, which he got from a Bristol dog groomer six weeks ago after it was rescued, was usually placid and good with children.

After word got around about the incident later that day, he says, he and Storm were threatened in the street locally by strangers, so he gave her to friends of friends who live out of the Chepstow area on Wednesday.

Mr James does not think Storm deserves to be destroyed because he believes the dog got excited at the prospect of going for a walk and used its paws, not its teeth, during what he described as a “one-off” incident.

He does not think Storm poses a risk to children in the future, but he was advised by police to keep it on a lead and wearing a muzzle in public.

“Chaya’s welfare is my only concern and I hope to continue seeing her,” he said.

Gwent Police said enquiries are ongoing and officers said the family should contact them if they have any complaint.