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| Suella Braverman is considering outlawing the breed, but will it have any real impact? |
Since the UK has let the "genie out of the bottle" with a spike in unlicensed breeding, American Bully XL attacks are likely to continue to rise, a specialist has warned. Even a ban is unlikely to stop them.
Since the breed first appeared in the UK in recent years, campaigners have linked the dogs to at least 14 human deaths and hundreds of assaults on dogs and other creatures.
A ban on the breed, which are larger copies of American pitbulls, has been announced by home secretary Suella Braverman in response to the most recent incident in Birmingham that left an 11-year-old girl and two other victims.
Breed-specific restrictions, however, are ineffectual and might result in the euthanasia of thousands of innocent dogs, according to animal welfare organizations like the RSPCA and British Veterinarian Association. In fact, the American Bully XL isn't even currently recognized as a breed in the UK.
Leading veterinarian Dave Martin told The Independent that a "very high percentage" of vet offices under the My Family Vets umbrella will have dealt with dogs attacked by breeds resembling American Bullies. Martin serves as the animal welfare advisor for about 1,000 veterinary practices.
"These dogs are going to cause much more severe wounds because they are so much bigger and have such powerful jaws," said Dr. Martin, who serves as an expert witness in instances involving hazardous canines.
"If you're bitten by something that weights 80 kg, the damage will be severe and enormous. He added that Bully XLs "are certainly more aggressive [with other dogs] than some other breeds," so "you're not going to get away lightly".
Many pet owners, including 49-year-old steel industry worker Lee Parkin, can vouch for this.
Despite having grown up with dogs, he admitted to The Independent that an American Bully attack on his family's nine-year-old dog—which later passed away in his arms—left him "petrified" of these breeds and that he had been given a PTSD diagnosis.
On the morning of December 21, while Mr. Parkin walked Roxy, the dog belonging to his daughter, and Izzy, a cocker spaniel-Jack Russell mix, the dog approached him near his home in Scawthorpe, close to Doncaster. It then got "fixated" on Mr. Parkin.
Izzy was "clamped" between the Bully's front legs before it "grabbed her at the back of the neck and shook her to pieces like a rag doll," according to reports that the animal escaped from a nearby property.
Mr. Parkin claimed that he stuffed his fingers into the dog's eye sockets, stamped on it, punched it, and squeezed its testicles, but that none of those actions were able to stop the dog until three other men finally stepped in.
Izzy "suffered the worst possible death" four days before Christmas, upsetting Mr. Parkin and his family, Mr. Parkin claimed, adding that he "collapsed" on the way to the veterinarian's office and once there. Izzy was unable to be saved by the medical staff, who were also unable to save Izzy.
The 49-year-old, who has experienced flashbacks and sought counseling since the incident, claimed he is now afraid to walk his other dogs during the day for fear of coming across other Bully XLs, who he says are being artificially inseminated near his home to breed.
According to Mr. Parkin, the dog that killed Izzy still resides in the neighborhood, and its owners were issued a police caution along with requirements like attending a required dog awareness course.
According to Dr. Martin, the breeds have become "fashionable," and some owners buy them as "status dogs" to appear "more aggressive."
The "very buoyant" American Bully trade, he claimed, was the only aspect of unlicensed breeding that didn't collapse when people returned to work during the pandemic, despite the fact that unlicensed breeding in general experienced a boom.
Attacks would probably continue to rise as long as American Bullies are fashionable, he said, adding: "I think we're behind the curve here. It's erupted as an issue. The genie is essentially out of the bottle.
However, he cautioned that outright banning the dogs is not a practical answer and that some measures to control the animals may even backfire by making them more popular.
That didn't work at all when we tried it with pit bulls. To stop these attacks, we must consider a variety of strategies, according to Dr. Martin.
What would we do with the thousands of Bully XLs who are currently stumbling around our streets if we prohibit these dogs tomorrow, he continued? Do we advocate putting them all to sleep? Which I simply don't see the general population ever approving.
Or are those canines going to be subject to some form of licensing system? In that scenario, we must look at the specifics to determine whether it will truly have any impact at all on lowering the level of harm or fatalities that these dogs are producing.
An further challenge is that there "is no simple test" that can determine whether a dog is a Bully XL, therefore experts may have to evaluate individual animals with the risk that other experts will disagree with their findings.
He added, "That's the situation we got into with pit bulls. And since they might be pit bulls, hundreds of dogs ended up being imprisoned in police kennels.