An expert has warned the UK will ‘likely’ see more XL Bully attacks in future despite the breed having been banned by the Government earlier this year.
Two separate attacks earlier this week have left two young boys, aged five and 15, injured and taken to hospital while a woman was also killed by her two XL Bullys inside her home last Monday.
The spate of horrific attacks, as well as others earlier in the year since the ban was imposed, has seen people call into question whether it is working.
The Government brought in the ban on the muscular canines after they were blamed for maulings which led to at least 11 deaths since 2021. Those killed ranged from 17 months to 84 years of age.
But this is not expected to solve the issue, with one expert telling that further attacks are likely as the pets are being rehomed with ‘irresponsible’ owners who are unaware of how to look after them.
Doug Smith member of Bully Watch, said: ‘We will likely be seeing more of these attacks. They won’t go away.’
‘It is a really tricky and messy situation for police to respond to. They can’t go door to door to assess the owners and assess the dogs.
‘The ban hasn’t had an impact on the ownership of these dogs and they are being rehomed to unsuitable homes illegally.
‘People are rehoming these dogs to other irresponsible owners. It is a case of idiots giving their dogs to other idiots. These people think they are responsible owners when they aren’t.’
‘It is quite unprecedented. They have put this ban in place and people are still wanting to take these dogs into these homes.
Mr Smith said that while there the number of attacks by XL Bullys doesn’t appear to have been effected by the government ban, there are still fewer people breeding the dogs.
Instead people are the dodging exemption requirements by buying a nano, micro or pocket version of the banned dog instead.
He added: ‘I don’t think the breeding of XL Bully’s is going on illegally seeing as the number of people breeding these dogs has gone down.
‘The demand of people wanting to own an XL Bully has gone down as a result of the ban and so the supply has too. People are just looking atexotics instead.’
Mr Smith’s comments came shortly after a segment on GMB this morning, debating whether there should be a rule to put down every registered XL Bully in the UK.
Mr Parry claimed XL Bully owners used the ‘trying to look big’ for keeping the banned breed and said all registered dogs should be taken away.
February 3 – A grandmother was killed by two XL Bully dogs in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex.
February 9 – A woman was bitten in the face by a ‘bully type dog’ in Lanarkshire.
February 10 – An eight-year-old boy was mauled by a dog believed to be an XL Bully while playing outside in Merseyside.
February 18 – An XL bully-type dog was shot dead by police after attacking another dog and injuring three people.
February 19 – A four-year-old girl was left seriously injured after she was attacked by a suspected XL Bully cross-breed in Carmarthen.
March 18 – A suspected XL Bully was killed by armed police after going on a rampage and injuring four people in Battersea, London. On the same day a three-year-old boy was mauled by a registered XL Bully in Doncaster.
April 9 – A woman was attacked in her home in the Norfolk town of Holt by an XL Bully she was looking after.
April 16 – A suspected XL bully attacked a woman in Blackpool.
April 29 – A woman was taken to hospital with serious injuries after being attacked by a bully-type dog in Kelloholm, Dumfriesshire.
May 20 – A woman was mauled to death by her two registered XL Bully dogs in Havering, east London.
May 27 – A five-year-old boy was attacked by an XL Bully in Hull.
May 28 – A 15-year-old boy was attacked by an XL Bully in Caerphilly, South Wales.
Responding to his comments, XL Bully owner Kay Taiwo, who also appeared on the show earlier today, stressed that the main focus should be on educating owners rather going after the breed directly.
Meanwhile, Bully Watch also expressed its apprehension over the debate of whether to have all registered XL Bullys put down.
The organisaton wrote on X: ‘GMB are running a segment this morning on putting down all XL Bullies presumably to start a provocative debate in light of recent attacks. There’s been a lot of talk about this as a solution. We actively remove any mention of it in our replies.
‘To be clear – we do not and will not support the ridiculous idea that the solution is to put all XL Bullies down.
‘We would actively campaign against if it was put forward as a credible policy position (which it won’t be – ever). If it’s a view you share, then this isn’t the account for you to follow. To any worried XL Bully owners out there – the chance of this happening is negligible.
‘At the end of the day – these are just dogs. These are not devil dogs nor are they intrinsically evil. They are large powerful dogs with genetic predispositions which make them more dangerous in the event they do attack.
‘As a starting point – we wish people understood that they own a pit bull and begun learning more about what that means in terms of animal behaviour instead of listening to the absolute garbage being put forward that this is some new special companion breed.’
From February 1, it became a criminal offence to own the XL bully breed in England and Wales without an exemption certificate.
Anyone who owns one of the dogs must have had the animal neutered, have it microchipped and keep it muzzled and on a lead in public, among other restrictions.
But the ban has not put a stop to attacks caused by the dangerous dog breed.
A 15-year-old boy was attacked by an XL Bully in Caerphilly, on Tuesday. Armed police were called after officers confirmed the dog was an XL Bully after the boy was hospitalised in the attack.
The dog was put down by vets after the boy was taken to hospital after being attacked by the dog.
A five-year-old boy is also recovering after being bitten on the head by an XL bully, in yet another attack by the dangerous breed on Monday.
The boy suffered injuries to his head, and is currently in hospital receiving treatment after the incident on Brazil Street in Hull, police said.
‘She was a sincere person with such a kind heart.’
The incident came took place just days after the first fatal attack since the breed was banned in February.
Angeline Mahal died earlier this month at her home in Hornchurch, East London after being mauled by her two registered XL Bullys.
The two registered dogs were seized by police – some bearing riot shields – after being contained in a room.
One relative, who did not wish to be named, said they ‘used to always urge her to give up the dogs’.
They added: ‘It was more because the dogs were a bit of a tether, they took up a lot of her time with feeding and walking. It limited her freedom.
‘But there’s something I want to make clear and it’s that anyone who has XL Bully-type dog needs to do the right thing if they spot their pets becoming aggressive and give them up.
‘I know it’s hard because people have such an attachment – but we wouldn’t want any other family to go through this.
‘She was a sincere person with such a kind heart.’
The relative added: ‘Angeline always kept dogs, she had done for years. Her two most recent dogs were XL bullies. She’d had them since they were puppies and had cages for them. They were properly registered.
‘We don’t know the full details yet but I think only one of them attacked her. Her two sons found her in the hallway. They tried to give her CPR but she had already gone. The police and paramedics turned up a little while later.’
The incident is thought to be the first fatal attack involving registered XL Bully dogs since fresh restrictions on the breed came into force on February 1.
Two days after the ban came into force Esther Martin, 68, was killed by XL bullies inside a property in Jaywick, Essex. Her daughter claimed the dogs were unregistered.
Meanwhile, last month a woman in Scotland was ‘seriously hurt’ after a bully-type dog attacked her in the street.
In April the inquest into the death of a father-of-five who was mauled to death by an XL Bully he was looking after on behalf of a friend heard he had the ‘worst injuries a trauma doctor had ever seen’.
And earlier this month a mother and son who allowed their XL Bully to wander free were jailed after it savagely attacked an eight-year-old boy.
Amanda Young, 49, and her son Lewis, 30, were keeping the dog in their small flat in Bootle, Merseyside at the time of the attack in February this year.
Lewis a delivery driver, bought the dog from a Facebook advert but failed to check whether it was a banned breed after new legislation came in at the beginning of the year.
He left the dog, called Snoop, in his mother’s charge but she allowed it to wander around outside the flat, while she sat drinking.
During this time the dog attacked a boy who had been on his way to play football with a friend, grabbing him by the head and neck, and violently shaking him.
Horrified neighbours valiantly tried to get the dog, which was seen ‘frothing at the mouth’ off the youngster as it ripped off his scalp during the attack on February 10, this year.
One bite fractured and pierced his skull and doctors feared at first it could have pierced his brain.
The boy was left with ‘significant and life-changing injuries’, with doctors warning he will have permanent scarring to his face and revealing that the viciousness of the attack meant they had been unable to re-attach his scalp and had to use skin grafts instead.
Lewis Young was jailed for two years and his mother was locked away for 20 months, while the dog was destroyed.
Jonathan Halstead, 35 – January 29, 2020
Jonathan died from a severe neck injury and bites after being attacked in his home in Oldham, Greater Manchester by his pet Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Bronson.
It is believed the dog attacked him when its owner suffered an epileptic fit.
Jack Lis, 10 – November 8, 2021
Schoolboy Jack Lis, ten, suffered catastrophic injuries after being mauled by an American XL bully dog called Beast while visiting a friend’s home in Penyrheol in Caerphilly, Wales on November 8, 2021.
Neighbours and Welsh Ambulance Service paramedics desperately tried to save him but he died at the scene. Armed police destroyed the dog on site.
Adam Watts, 55 – December 22, 2021
Adam Watts, 55, was attacked at the Juniper Kennels and Cattery in Kirkton of Auchterhouse, near Dundee, and was pronounced dead at the scene on December 22, 2021.
Bella-Rae Birch, 17 months – March 21, 2022
Toddler Bella-Rae Birch was attacked by her family’s pet American bully XL dog when she was just 17 months old.
The vicious dog snatched the child out of her mother’s arms while they were at their home in Blackbrook, St Helens, Merseyside, on March 21 last year.
Keven Jones, 62 – May 28, 2022
Keven Jones died after he was attacked by an American Bully XL dog in Wrexham, Wales on May 28 last year.
Ambulance workers attempted to save him but they were unable to stop his left leg bleeding.
Mr Jones was then pronounced dead at his son’s house following the attack.
Joanne Robinson, 43 – July 15, 2022
Mother-of-two Joanne Robinson, 43, was killed by her American bully XL dog, Rocco, after it ‘turned mad in the extreme heat’ in July last year.
She died at the scene of the attack at home in Rotherham, South Yorkshire while her partner, Jamie Stead, was left with injuries to his hands, stomach and face as he tried to pull the animal off her.
Joanne’s mother Dot, of Wath-upon-Dearne, South Yorkshire, revealed at the time that Rocco had previously fought with their other dog Lola – and she had warned her daughter to ‘get rid of one of them’.
Ian Symes, 34 – August 2022
Ian ‘Wiggy’ Symes, 34, who is understood to have been walking a bully XL dog himself at a recreation ground in Fareham, Hampshire, died at the scene following a horrific dog attack in August 2022.
His devastated family said he was ‘doing something he loved’ when he died in the field in Fareham, Hampshire.
Ann Dunn, 65 – October 3, 2022
Ann Dunn, 65, was found collapsed with ‘catastrophic injuries’ at her Liverpool home she shared with seven dogs on October 3 last year.
She was mauled to death by dogs including an American bully XL – and had been sent to hospital a year before her death because she had been bitten by a dog.
Shirley Patrick, 83 – December 3, 2022
Widowed grandmother Shirley Patrick, 83, died after being viciously mauled by an XL bully in her own home.
The retired nurse died in hospital 17 days after suffering ‘life-threatening injuries’ during the ‘hellish’ and ‘violent’ dog attack in Caerphilly, South Wales on December 3 last year.
Jonathan Hogg, 37 – May 18, 2023
Jonathan Hogg, 37, was mauled to death by an American XL bully dog when it turned on him while he was looking after it for a friend.
He entered the pen when it went for him, leaving bite wounds on his arm, leg and head, an inquest heard.
He was rushed to hospital but died of his injuries after the mauling in Leigh, Greater Manchester, on May 18 this year.
Ian Price, 52 – September 14, 2023
On Thursday, September 14, ‘pillar of the community’ Ian Price, 52, was attacked and killed by two ‘devil’ XL bully dogs after they jumped out of his neighbour’s window in Stonnall, Staffordshire.
Mr Price was attacked and killed by the two dogs which jumped out of a neighbour’s window yards from a primary school. He reportedly died defending his elderly mother from the animals.
The dogs bit him and ripped the clothes from his body leaving him dying in a pool of blood in his boxer shorts in the horror attack just feet from his home.
Ian Langley, 54 – October 3, 2023
Ian Langley, 54, was set upon on the estate in Sunderland on October 3 this year by an enormous XL bully dog which grabbed him by the neck as he bent down to pick up his Patterdale terrier pup.
The attack left Mr Langley needing CPR for around 15 minutes as emergency services fought to stop heavy bleeding from his wounds. He died from his injuries.