American XL bully dog will be banned, says Rishi Sunak

More kneejerk Dangerous Dog bans or new legislation from a Conservative government that bans dogs based on their breed.
Instead of banning habitually criminal or neglectful people from ever being dog owners, breeders and dog walkers.
The dog's breed and size are not the main problem, it is the human owners & breeders that are.

I'm experienced with the XLB breed and have worked with them for many years, I am sitting next to 4 XLBs as I'm typing now.

All fighting dogs and cross breed XL Bully type or fighting dogs should be banned. We cannot control these dogs or control the owners for cruelty. Sadly most owners have little interest in the dog only in their own status, money, drugs or themselves. The dogs are used as a weapon against others or in dog fights. It's always the poor dog that is brutalised, inbred or used as a money making machine. If the dog is very lucky it will be taken for a walk by Barbie (or Ken)

All sentient animals deserve to be treated better than we treat each other.

I do not agree with this ban because it will not help the problem at all, it is posturing and a knee-jerk reaction by the government.

I have looked at this extensively as I am interested in dog breeding, health issues in dogs and the general ethics of pedigree breeding.
The XL bully was only brought into this country fairly recently. It has exploded and now breeders are getting pretty minted off of these dogs. I strongly believe this backyard bully breeding is in large part a front for money laundering and other illicit activities. If you have a look on instagram these breeders are driving around in fast cars with gold chains and post pictures with several fire emojis and badly photoshopped posters of their stud dogs. These breeders breed for colour and aesthetics not health or temperament and sell them for thousands. The absolute worst example of these bully breeders are the breeders of 'toadline' bullies and pocket bullies. These dogs are incredibly deformed and suffer their whole short lives.
My concern is that by banning the comparatively healthy XL bully the breeders will focus on the micro and toadline bullies causing even more suffering.

These breeders do not care about the law, if they did there would not be ear cropping as that is already illegal in this country. All this ban will do is make these dogs more attractive to people who want to use them as street cred. Current dogs in rescue centres face being euthanised and only responsible compliant people will end up getting them chipped, neutered and muzzled. It hasn't worked for pit bulls and it wont work for these bullies.

Similar to pit bulls the XL bully is not a recongnised breed in this country meaning that to enforce this law they will have to do it based on 'type' which is general measurements and size which is not scientific or reliable at all.

The only dog breeds we should be banning are those who are suffering in terms of their welfare. For the uninitiated this is what a toadline micro bully looks like.

I would support the reintroduction of dog licenses rather than BSL, targetting specific breeds is just short sighted and moves the problem elsewhere (there will always be a new muscly dog created as breeds are constructs anyway and can be made by crossing other dogs into a new breed). We also need a huge crackdown on who can breed dogs.

Nowhere have I suggested that and most aggression is based on training (or lackthereof) and the dog's environment rather than raw instinct.

Nowhere have I suggested that and most aggression is based on training (or lackthereof) and the dog's environment rather than raw instinct. This exactly proves my point by the way that any dog can be aggressive and breed specific bans are short sighted to the overall problem of irresponsible owners and bad breeders. If you want to use children as an emotive example, Jade Anderson's death was a result of animal neglect as the dog's were not fed and her having food in her hands caused the attack. A lot of lockdown brought dogs (cutsey spaniels, cockapoos, dachsunds etc) are also having behavioural issues as they enter adolescence as they were impulse buys during the pandemic and now their owners cannot devote enough time to them now they are back at work. The BBC released an article on this not so long ago: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66723458

Many of these pandemic puppies were brought unknowingly from backyard breeders, puppy smugglers, dog thieves and general criminals actually so perhaps gangsters have a bigger interest in Dachsunds than you think, especially merle ones because that's a 'rare' colour (mainly because breeding two merles together causes puppies with blindness) and they sell for thousands. £3000 to £4000 according to the BVA: https://bvajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/vetr.252

Also just as an aside if you do witness a dog attack by any breed lifting it up is actually the worst thing you can do as you end up in a tug of war with it and the bite force applied is greater. The best thing to do is to try and get something around its neck to strangle it and force it to release.

I've seen no real evidence that the dogs responsible for these attacks are owned by gangsters or haven't been trained properly. It's just an assumption. I've heard plenty of stories of pitbull type dogs from loving families who suddenly go ape****.

imagine trying to cope here that they shouldn't ban all of them to the ground. Gov actually attempting to do the right things but it's the classic reactionary thing that this current gov does instead of understanding that this has clearly been a problem they wait for a high profile story and for sentiment on things to change their processes.

Imagine telling a little kid all they gotta do is get something around the dogs neck and force it to release.

Yeah let me just find a baseball bat a rope or a pole out of nowhere during the middle of a dog attack while it's chasing me full speed.

Also the daschunds being rife for smuggling really isn't the issue here, the issue is that there are clearly dangerous breeds being used either to intimidate people or that are simply unable to be controlled by people. It's like saying lets buy Bazookas as long as the person who owns it is a good person there's nothing to worry about. You can obviously own a knife because it does less damage than a Bazooka.

''it's okay they don't bite they're lovely'' yeah that's great until they do.

It's not really an assumption, all you need to do is go on Instagram or similar and look through the feeds on exotic bullies, bully XLs etc. I was actually saying the breeders are mostly gangsters and criminals rather than the owners though.



I'm not sure where I have said these dogs are lovely? Personally I don't think they are and I don't like any of these bully lines from a health point of view. Toadline bullies are an abomination and a lot of bully XLs have joint problems. Bullys in general have a high rate of BOAS and breathing problems.
Just because I don't like something though I don't want knee jerk legislation passed through that won't do a thing.
Rather than looking at dog ownership as a whole or tightening up who can breed and own dogs the laziest solution is to ban an entire made up breed that can easily be replaced by another.


If you think this legislation is going to be effective then that's fantastic but I am personally skeptical and believe the better thing would have been shutting down these backyard breeders and puppy farmers, prosecuting breeders under animal welfare laws and restricting who can buy and own any powerful dog. But that is too much effort for the government and apparently many posters on this thread.

I'm also not suggesting a child try to choke out an XL bully, hence the very clear use of the word 'witness'.

It literally is too much effort though. These dogs are a real and present danger to the public and adding them to the existing dangerous dogs act is going to be much quicker than anything you have suggested (much of which I would also support). What's more the current act has been in force for 22 years with no amendment and while flawed has seemingly been doing a reasonably good job up until this breed came along so I'm sceptical of any claims that it won't do anything.

In what capacity do you work with them?

What makes them dangerous are also the owners unfortunately, a huge factor a dog that’s trained well is more beneficial to the environment and public for example German Shepherds known to be sniffer dogs sensing out drugs and stuff and can be able to sense a thief or trace the dangers of theft unlike these American XL bully’s who some owners don’t even train and pose danger to the public crazily losing the plot.

If people are fine with these devil dogs and it's the owners that are the problem then I want a pet bear to go shopping with.
Look at it's happy face,it wouldn't harm a fly.

Maybe every owner or person legally in charge at any time of a fighting dog breed, or fighting cross breed should have to be nationally certified - applicable to all of the UK in private or public with no exceptions?

Owners (& persons in charge) certified that they do not have any personality disorders or mental health issues (by undergoing a screening mental health test) have no criminal record and should be required to undergo a training course on the welfare, keeping and handling of such dominant dogs.

As of 2008 Dachsunds were the most aggressive breed: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2254479/Sausage-dogs-are-the-most-aggressive-dogs.html

I'm not denying that bull breeds are involved in a lot of attacks but the phenotype of a dog (big and muscly) doesn't always mean they will be the most aggressive.