More than half one million individuals have signed a petition to cease Rishi Sunak including the American XL Bully to the listing of banned breeds.
Titled ‘Bad Owners Are To Blame, Not The Breed’, the petition has sufficient signatures that MPs should contemplate debating it within the Commons.
The authorities is at the moment on observe to make the XL Bully the fifth breed to be banned within the UK after it was linked to a spike in violent, unprovoked and sometimes deadly assaults on people.
Current homeowners can be allowed to maintain their dogs so long as they obey strict situations, whereas breeding, promoting, gifting away or abandoning them can be punishable by as much as 6 months’ jail.
The petition’s creator, Glyn Saville, insists the XL Bully is a ‘kind, beautiful natured breed that loves children and people’.
Urging individuals to signal his petition on Parliament’s web site, he wrote: ‘An XL Bully is a “Heinz 57”, a mixture of different breeds, so if you ban them then this will have implications for cross breeds of dog because nobody can be sure on the breed specifics.
‘They are all different sizes and shapes. Just because a dog is big and muscular doesn’t imply it may be labelled an XL Bully, it’s unfair to do that.
‘It is also a well-known fact that how a dog acts is a reflection of the owner’s actions. Bad homeowners needs to be punished, not the breed of canine – maintain dangerous homeowners accountable.’
A bunch of seven main charities have joined forces as The Dogs Control Coalition to oppose the ban, saying it gained’t work and may very well be too ‘complicated’ to implement as a result of the breed is just not extensively recognised.
Ministers have mentioned the ban will ‘take a while’ to implement as a result of consultants and prosecutors have to agree on how one can outline XL Bully traits by legislation.
Contrary to what the petition suggests, some organisations do have pointers on what makes a canine an XL Bully. However many our bodies don’t recognise the breed.
The Kennel Club, which runs the nationwide register of pedigree dogs within the UK, doesn’t recognise the American Bully breed in any respect – not to mention the XL Bully selection, which it says there may be ‘no clear classification’ for.
This view is shared by the extremely influential International Canine Federation in addition to the American Kennel Club.
On the opposite hand, the American Bully is recognised by the European Bully Kennel Club, the American Bully Kennel Club and United Kennel Club, who outline the XL selection just by dimension.
The Dogs Control Coalition contains The Kennel Club, the RSPCA, Blue Cross, Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, Dogs Trust, Hope Rescue and British Veterinary Association.
In a press release, it argued that the ban is not going to handle the ‘root issue’ of ‘unscrupulous breeders’ and ‘irresponsible owners’.
It mentioned: ‘The biggest priority for everyone involved is to protect the public – but banning the breed will sadly not stop these types of incidents recurring.
‘For 32 years, the Dangerous Dogs Act has focused on banning types of dog and yet has coincided with an increase in dog bites and the recent deaths show that this approach isn’t working.’
The Kennel Club mentioned ministers ought to as a substitute ‘update, consolidate and where necessary, replace existing legislation to focus on prevention, regardless of the breed’.
‘A properly enforced dog control notice regime should be backed by a national database where information can be shared between all relevant enforcement agencies and problem owners can be traced,’ it added in a press release.
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