“He would be 12,” Emma said ruefully. “It’s harder when events come by that remind us of him. There is always an event or something happening and it’s still very difficult. [Jack’s younger brother] James is finding it very hard – he’s struggling massively. But we just try and take every hour as it comes. We can’t change what’s happened can we?”
She can’t alter what’s occurred to Jack however she is doing this interview to highlight that the callous practice of breeding hazardous dogs for bags of money is triggering households tremendous distress throughout Britain. Statistics of deaths by dog attacks and dogs taken by cops throughout Wales and England because Jack passed away are damning. It is a trade sustained by a profitable organised criminal offense business of severe dog breeding where unethical breeders blend effective dogs for a bizarrely popular “muscle-look”. Campaigners like Emma, who says she does not think there is such a thing as a “bad breed”, are requiring a modification in the law to avoid dogs from being “failed from the start”.
Jack passed away following an attack by an XL bully at a house in Penyrheol in Caerphilly district which he’d innocently strolled into without understanding the threat the dog inside positioned. The dog, called Beast, had actually been caught on CCTV in the days prior to Jack’s death leaping up and attempting to bite individuals in the street in Penyrheol. Beast’s owner Brandon Hayden, who can be seen punching the dog to the head as a method of penalty in the video footage, was sentenced to 4 years and 6 months in jail while Amy Salter, who was looking after the dog at her home where Jack was killed, was imprisoned for 3 years. She is anticipated to be launched on licence in a couple of months.
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“I hate that they’ll be out so quickly, I absolutely hate it,” Emma said. “It’s not fair at all. But I’ll keep fighting [for prevention of deaths and longer sentences for those in control of dangerous dogs]. Right now we have little to compare Jack’s case to because there are not many convictions for deaths following dangerous dog attacks. It seems each case that I look into comes to a dead end. Going forward I am going to fight for stronger sentences for those who are convicted. If I can deter one illegal breeder or bad owner or stop one family from going through what we’ve gone through then I’ll keep going.”
Across Gwent, which covers Caerphilly, because Jack passed away in November 2021 an overall of 92 dog attacks were reported to Gwent Police in the year to November 2022. The figure was 63 for the year to November 2019. An overall of 22 dogs were taken by the force following reports in the year to November 2022. For the comparable duration to November 2019 that number was 6. The pattern is a sign of a nationwide image. Each force location that WalesOnline checked out for this piece revealed a substantial boost in dog attacks and dogs took throughout the very same duration. From January to July 2020 there were 7,790 dog attacks throughout the UK. For the very same duration in 2022 that figure was 9,834 – a 26% boost. Earlier this month Gwent Police officers informed councillors in Penyrheol they’d seized 13 dogs within the Caerphilly South area alone up until now this year.
While she understood the issue was aggravating throughout the UK Emma said she had a hard time to understand the news that an 83-year-old lady had actually passed away a couple of streets far from where Jack had actually been killed in an almost similar method December – ending up being the 10th individual to pass away in the UK from a harmful dog attack in 2022 and once again by an XL bully type blended with a Cane Corso. Shirley Patrick, who dealt with dementia which her child Gail Jones said had “actually been a blessing in the end because she had no idea what had happened”, died in hospital several days after the attack which left her in a coma.
“I thought it could happen again but for it to happen so close to home after Jack’s story literally went all over the world I was just like: how?” Emma remembered. “I don’t think it’s about the breed of dog as such. It comes down to breeders and sometimes owners not taking responsibility. Do the breeders selling them even care? The dogs might look cute to some but what is going on behind the scenes needs to be told.
“There are loopholes around breeding about if you’ve got a male dog and no bitches you can stud it to whoever you want and run a very lucrative business. To me that’s people being greedy and not thinking about the welfare of the animals or the safety of the public. I think laws around breeding need looking at and I think people need to use an element of common sense when they see something because there were clear signs that the dog that killed Jack was dangerous and out of control but it wasn’t reported. The dog that killed Jack was beaten, passed around, and the original owner knew it was dangerous and yet passed it on to a man who didn’t have a clue and let it attack people and didn’t do anything about it. That dog was failed from the start and was bred purely to be a status symbol.”
Plaid Cymru councillor for Penyrheol Greg Ead said the community feels as though “lightning has struck twice” but the reality is this could have happened anywhere in Wales given the alarming ignorance among breeders and owners. “There has been a lot of coverage of what happened to Jack and Shirley and both of those together have generated such a heightened awareness here now,” Greg said. “We are seeing proactive policing over the issue. Westminster isn’t going to change the law next week so we’ve got to come together ourselves for now and recognise this is a shared problem that everyone needs to report on. It’s clear the community is more vigilant and that’s borne out in the figures.”
A report commissioned by Defra and carried out by Middlesex University last year found evidence pointed to human behaviour as a key factor in dog bite incidents. It suggested many attacks are preventable if owners are alert to problems when dogs are placed in wrong situations and handled inappropriately. The report also points to owners who unwittingly put dogs in situations where dog attacks could occur and indicated that many owners lack the skills to control their pets.
There is perhaps no-one better to speak to in Wales to get a clear picture of the crisis than Vanessa Waddon, founder of Hope Rescue in Pontyclun. The centre is inundated with bully breeds which have been crossed to get what is often described by illegal breeders online as a “stacked” appearance. Desperate owners drawn in by social media hysteria over the deformed dogs lie to the rescue centre to get rid of the dogs once they realise their error in buying them.
“We get a lot of bully types, including American bullies and English bulldogs, coming in as reported strays,” Vanessa said. “They aren’t real strays. During lockdown over three million dogs were bought, many of them by inexperienced and first-time owners. It was also difficult to access training and adequate socialisation during lockdown. We’ve seen a significant increase in young dogs of all breeds coming in with behavioural problems including an increase in bully types. As well as owners pretending their own dogs are strays, we also get a lot of bullies from owners who realise at six or seven months in that they can’t afford to look after their very serious health conditions. We also take a lot of bully types seized by local authorities from illegal or low welfare breeders.”
The bullies often arrive at the rescue with cropped ears typically associated with pets from dodgy beginnings. They also all have difficulties breathing. Surgery to correct their breathing difficulties costs the rescue centre thousands of pounds a month.
Within the last week Vanessa and her team have had to put down two XL bullies because they would never feasibly be fit to be safely rehomed. They also recently put down pocket bully Keanu who featured in a BBC Panorama documentary uncovering illegal breeding. Keanu was bred so irresponsibly that he ended up with severe breathing problems and his paws were facing the wrong direction.
“The environment the XL bullies were kept in was awful and not conducive to good welfare,” head of welfare at the rescue centre Sara Rosser explained. “Both dogs had cropped ears and mobility issues. There was evidence showing they had been treated appallingly and trained using harsh physical punishment. Rather than being kept as a companion pet day to day they were kept in an enclosed yard with both dogs being actively encouraged to grab and rag objects and items as their only stimulation and exercise. As you can imagine trying to rehome two 50kg-plus extremely muscly dogs who were obsessed with grabbing trees, tyres, and other items when walking is impossible to do responsibly and we have a duty of care to the public. They weren’t put to sleep because of their breed but due to their behaviour as a result of their life experiences.”
“These were not happy, healthy dogs and our difficult decision was also made in their welfare interest,” Vanessa added. “However, the pups that came in with them luckily were young enough that we could change their story.”
A quick flick through Facebook with Vanessa uncovers more than 30 unlicensed breeders in a matter of minutes that are based in and around Cardiff. Sara described the rescue’s findings as “terrifying”.
“It’s like a subculture – a huge illegal bully breeding community that is getting bigger and bigger,” Vanessa explained, showing us a seven-week-old XL bully cross pup she is fostering which sleeps below her desk and which has already had four homes when he shouldn’t at this stage have even been separated from his mother and littermates. The pup is one of the lucky ones that are now in safe hands, and Vanessa dreads to think what might have happened if he hadn’t ended up at their door. “So many illegal breeders are indiscriminately producing unhealthy dogs, they co-own the dogs and pass them around to each other, and they often end up in the hands of unsuitable owners. He’s seven weeks old and shouldn’t have left his mum, yet he has had four placements at the most important time in his life. We’ll ensure that he will now get the most appropriate and best care to prepare him for rehoming. If he hadn’t come here he would most likely have been passed on and on again. Before you know it you’ve got an adolescent dog with potentially no social skills and complex behavioural problems. A lot goes into making a good well-rounded dog and a common theme running through fatal dog bites is a backstory that you hear again and again.”
Inside a litany of unregulated fertility clinics not just in south Wales but across the UK bully bitches are artificially inseminated and undergo repeated C-sections each year because they are unable to give birth naturally. In January couple Karl and Victoria Shellard admitted not having an appropriate licence and failing to meet the needs of the dogs in their care, including forcing bitches to undergo multiple pregnancies within one year. Vanessa said the Shellards’ case is the tip of the iceberg.
She has backed Emma’s calls for a change in legislation which doesn’t focus on continuously adding to Britain’s banned breed list under the 1991 Dangerous Dogs Act and encourages a holistic approach to a complex issue starting with improved breeding legislation and investing in education and responsible ownership programmes while ensuring there are enough resources to tackle unsociable behaviour. She also encouraged the public to “not buy into cruelty” and instead source responsible and ethical breeders if they cannot adopt a dog. “There is no such thing as a dangerous breed of dog. Any dog, irrespective of breed, can become aggressive if it isn’t cared for properly. The very fact that the UK has seen a 154% increase in dog bites in the last 20 years and that most fatalities are not caused by banned breeds shows that the legislation as it stands is flawed.”
Caerphilly MP Wayne David, who impassioned by what has happened in Caerphilly has repeatedly raised the issue in the Commons, described the legislation in the Dangerous Dogs Act as “woefully inadequate and inappropriate to deal with the issue of dangerous dogs”. “Only four specific breeds of dog are banned in the act,” he said. “There are many types of dogs, including cross breeds, that people could argue ought to be added to the list but there are two fundamental problems with that approach. Firstly because of more and more cross-breeding it is virtually impossible to maintain any kind of legislation that contains an up-to-date list. Secondly proscribing certain breeds of dogs gives the erroneous impression that only listed dogs are dangerous and it does not take into account how a dog is kept and trained. The breed-specific legislation has another fundamental weakness which is that it is to a large extent reactive in character.
“The government really ought to examine the possibility of reintroducing dog licences but this time it shouldn’t simply be used as an easy way for the government to have an additional source of revenue. At the moment anyone in any circumstances can purchase virtually any dog. Local authorities should have a key role to play here. Local authorities also ought to have a statutory responsibility for ensuring that dogs are kept and housed properly and that their owners are ensuring that their dogs are correctly and appropriately trained.”
The MP has also called for government action over the loophole in the law which means breeders can avoid needing a licence if they are operating a business without owning a female dog. “The main aim of the legislation as it stands is to protect the welfare of animals by setting out standards for a number of animal activities including dog breeding. But the regulations do not cover owners using male dogs as studs either naturally or through artificial insemination,” he said. “Given that we are not talking about a significant change to legislation, but a closing of a loophole, I would hope that the UK Government will respond positively to the representations I have made to them. Similarly, given devolution, I would hope that at least the Welsh Government will respond swiftly.”
Caerphilly MS Hefin David said he will be asking key questions in the Senedd around licensing and breeding in Wales. “ What this has caused in Caerphilly has been so painful for our community and the families that it is hard to put into words,” he said. “Is there a risk that licensing becomes a burden on law-abiding people and at the same time fails to root out the problem? I need to ask: is licensing the solution? Is there anything that can be done to control the breeding of those dogs? Where does the power sit to challenge this? At the moment we’re in the process of discussing that.”
Epidemiologist and specialist in veterinary public health at University of Liverpool Dr John Tulloch said he isn’t convinced that licensing changes would see a decline in attacks. Dr Tulloch’s research has uncovered that dog attacks have increased year on year and were at 8,800 in England in the fiscal year to 2022. His results show a clear pattern of increased incidents in more deprived regions.
“Probably the most striking parts of the research were that this is a problem that is increasing and it is increasing in adults,” Dr Tulloch said. “We also know that there are higher rates of attacks in more deprived areas in the country – that’s really clear. Commonly people will say it’s just because we’ve got more dogs in the country but actually the increase in bites is occurring at a much faster rate than the increase in the number of dogs. So something fundamentally has changed about our relationships with dogs – but what that is we haven’t looked into yet.
“Some might say an answer to this is to keep dogs on leads in public places but we know that the majority of dog attacks do not happen in public – they happen within people’s homes. Dog licensing is also an idea that is repeatedly mentioned but compliance with licensing historically in Britain when you had to have a licence to own a dog has been poor. More than half of owners didn’t have a licence. There is also the issue of who could enforce this. You’d be spending money to create a lot of new roles at a financially difficult period. If someone could design a scheme where dog licences worked I’d be 100% behind them but my feeling at the moment is it would be very costly and compliance would be low. Clearly at the moment we don’t have an off-the-shelf solution.”
In Caerphilly Gail and her family are the latest victims trying to piece their lives back together after the death of her mother Shirley. As Shirley sat in a chair in the lounge of her home in Penyrheol the dog attacked her face. Shirley had never come into contact with the dog before and the dog was in the lounge being looked after while its owners moved house, Gail said. Following 18 operations and being put into an induced coma Shirley died several days after the attack.
“She lived in Penyrheol and Jack Lis lived literally two streets away from my mother. Before Jack Lis died the thought of someone dying after a dog attack never crossed my mind. I used to live just a couple of doors down from my mother and it was never something I thought about. Years ago dogs would roam the streets and I’d not heard of an issue.
“On the day it happened my mother came downstairs and she was sat in the chair watching TV and from there the dog went for her. It’s been almost three months now since it happened and I do not believe it’s really hit me. I didn’t really cry until the day of the funeral. It just feels to me as if it’s happening to someone else. When I go to her house to sort the bills I expect to see her walking in any minute.
“The one thing I’m grateful for is that my mother had dementia because as soon as the paramedics arrived she didn’t know what had happened and when they were taking her to theatre in hospital she thought she was going to the New Theatre in Cardiff to watch a show. She couldn’t have lived how she was but she did survive in an induced coma for a couple of days following 18 operations. She woke up and said: ‘Hiya Gail, I love you.’ And she would sing songs with me and then go off to sleep. We told her she’d fell off a chair and broke her arm. We could never have told her what had happened. My mother was so tiny and so frail that I think she would have had a heart attack when the attack happened if she hadn’t had dementia. We did think though that she had plenty of years left but that’s been ripped away from her now.
“I do not believe society is taking this issue seriously enough. I know two people who had similar type of dogs and since hearing about my mother have offered the dogs away.” Asked what she would say to someone considering purchasing from an unregistered breeder Gail replied: “Don’t do it – don’t even believe about it. Unless they’re trained properly do not touch them.”
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