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Police kennels which hold dangerous dogs are “full” of American Bully XLs, the breed behind a string of recent maulings and attacks, an expert has told i.
A seven-year-old girl was mauled in a playground in Liverpool this week by an XL Bully, where a witness saw the dog drag and pull the girl by her leg and follow her as she was trying to flee, The Mirror reported. The girl was taken to hospital with bite marks to her legs and injuries to her head, according to reports.
American Bully XLs are crossbreeds which share its genetic stock with the Pit Bull Terrier – a breed banned under the 1991 Dangerous Dogs Act – but it is also mixed with other breeds like the Mastiff.
The breed has been linked to nine deaths in the past two years. Among those killed was Jack Lis, a 10-year-old boy mauled by an eight-stone Bully named “Beast” in Caerphilly, south Wales in 2021, and Bella-Rae Birch, a 17-month-old girl attacked by a dog her family had only owned for a week, in 2022.
Dr Candy d’Sa, an animal behavioural expert and expert witness in Animal Law, described the XLs as a “massive” breed that was starting to take up the majority of her dangerous dog assessment work.
“The police kennels are full of bull breeds at the moment, particularly Bully XLs. It’s literally all I’m dealing with at the moment, in terms of assessing for courts.”
She said it was “very concerning” to hear of the attacks, but that she was expecting more would occur throughout the summer holidays when more children and dogs were outside.
“They are massive dogs, they are very easily aroused and difficult to de-arouse, they lock onto something, they hold it very very fast and it’s difficult to make them release, so they are dangerous – on the size alone.”
However Dr d’Sa said it wasn’t as simple as implementing a ban against the breed. American bullie contained a mix of dog types that ranged in size and strength, she said.
“You get micro bullies through to extreme bullies and the size difference is incredible. So what do you do, do you legislate them over a certain height, and how do they police that? They are literally going to have to carry a tape measure around – I just can’t imagine how they are going to be able to ban them,” she added.
Dr d’Sa said the breed wasn’t a typical family pet and was often being used as a “status” dog for criminals, many had no paper trail and weren’t registered.
Even if responsible owners did had the Bully XL, they might have trouble socialising them. She said she was hearing the breed was being discriminated against at dog training programmes because of the reputation of the breed – which didn’t help the situation.
The Pitbull terrier, Japanese Tosa, Dogo Argentino and Fila Brazileiro are the four types of dogs banned under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991.
Solicitor Trevor Cooper, who specialises in dog law, said he didn’t think adding the American Bully to the banned list would protect the public, which was more about dog education and introducing regulations for owners.
“To respond to these horrendous incidents by banning the breed, I can understand why people would think this is the solution, but it wouldn’t be.
“We need to look at the issue of the dog owners, we need to make sure they own responsibly and do get their dogs trained and appropriately socialised.”
Mr Cooper said every dog owner in the UK should be legally required to be registered. In order to be registered, they should have show some capability in being able to train and care for the pet, he said.
“It’s easier to buy a bottle of whiskey than it is to get a dog.”
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