Nottinghamshire is among the areas of the UK with the quickest rising variety of reported canine assaults. ITV News, which has submitted Freedom of Information requests to all police forces in England, discovered assaults within the county had risen by 31 p.c in comparison with 2022.
The 23 police forces which responded to the request recorded 11,373 reported canine assaults between July 2021 and June 2022. From July 2022 to June 2023 there have been 13,940 reported assaults, as reported by the Mirror.
The areas with the best rises had been Gloucestershire at 62 p.c, Cambridgeshire at 52 p.c, Lancashire at 47 p.c, Bedfordshire at 40 p.c and Nottinghamshire at 31 p.c. This comes after the Prime Minister promised to ban the XL Bully breed by the top of the yr, following a spate of lethal assaults.
Get the latest news straight to your phone by joining our WhatsApp Community
The space hit probably the most was the West Midlands with a complete of 1,244 reported assaults from July 2022 to June 2023. It was a canine attack in Birmingham which pressured the Government to behave when footage confirmed a lady aged 11 and two males being attacked by a crossbreed Bully XL-Staffordshire Bull Terrier puppy in Bordesley Green, Birmingham.
Ana Paun was pulled to the ground after the canine broke free from its collar close to a row of outlets on September 9. A 20-year-old man tried to assist her however the canine chased him to a close-by petrol station and attacked him on the bottom.
Other areas hit onerous by assaults in 2022/23 are West Yorks (1,025 experiences), Merseyside (1,183 experiences), Kent (1,135 experiences) and Greater Manchester (829 experiences). The variety of dogs detained underneath the Dangerous Dogs Act has additionally gone up by greater than 50 p.c since July 2021.
ITV mentioned this consists of banned breeds and dogs dangerously uncontrolled. Meanwhile, the variety of dogs destroyed underneath the Act in England since July 2021 is up by 30 per cent.
A vet mentioned the American XL Bully inhabitants has grown “exponentially” previously three years. David Martin, group head of Animal Welfare at My Family Vets, mentioned: “The dog population generally really grew during Covid. Since then the breed that has remained high in popularity and has grown in numbers is the American Bully.”
Despite protests by XL Bully house owners, he mentioned “the vast majority” of aggressive assaults are resulting from their breeding and possession. He added: “It’s not an issue purely associated to the American Bully, however that’s the breed that’s presently modern.”