The disconcerting increase of American bully XL dogs: ‘If one gets hold of you, you’re in problem’ | Dogs

In January, 28-year-old dog walker Natasha Johnston was assaulted and killed while walking 8 dogs in Gravelly Hill, Caterham. An examination later on revealed it was her own dog, an American bully XL, that triggered the deadly injuries.

In May, Jonathan Hogg, 37, was killed after suffering bite injuries to his arm, leg and head while he was caring for his friend’s bully XL in Greater Manchester.

Given that there are an approximated 13m pet dogs in Britainand just a few thousand American bully XLs, there have been calls to ban what appear like an unmanageable breed. But are they naturally hazardous?

“They’re just beautiful dogs,” Daren says. “They are a big, strong, muscular dog … so powerful. It has got to the point now where they’re trying to ban the breed and everyone’s thinking: ‘Oh no, you’ve got an XL bully – that dog is an absolute lunatic.’ But I would be more frightened of my dogs licking you to death.”

He does, nevertheless, confess that the strength and size of the bully XL suggest owners need to be especially proficient at training them. “You get snappy jack russells or you get snappy chihuahuas, but if one of them bites or nips you, you are not actually going to be in trouble. If one of these gets hold of you, you’re going to be in trouble.”

After the attack that killed Jones, his daughter-in-law posted on Facebook: “Cookie did not attack Keven, he’s a big boy and plays too rough.”

Daren, who runs his own scaffolding business in Surrey, gets a family friend to look in on his dogs while he is at work, however won’t let them take both dogs out at the very same time. “I’m the only person who can walk both dogs together because of their power. They’re 68 kilos of solid muscle and if they suddenly wanted to take off, no man on this earth could hold them,” he says. “That’s why training and voice command is so important.”

He says the dogs live conveniently together with him at home, although he feeds them in their kennels outside. “They’re great pets but they do need a lot of exercise – you need to tire them out.”

Sarah, an accounting professional from Lancashire, owns 2 pocket-size American bully dogs, a smaller sized variation of the bully XL, weighing in at about 40kg, which resembles a big German shepherd.

Like Daren, she asked to be described by her given name just. “It’s sad that it has to be that way. I wish I could just say: ‘This is me and these are my dogs,’ but I don’t want to open myself up to the negativity,” she says. “I have small children at home and my dogs are brilliant with them. I don’t understand why it’s this breed that’s getting all the bad press.”

She puts her dogs, Arlo and Honey, into cages (called dog crates) when she is at work and they are at home alone. This prevails with dogs, even little types, and is said to motivate a complacency, along with avoiding “accidents” or damage to home furnishings. “It’s like a safe space for them – they have nice fluffy rugs and sometimes take themselves off there when they want to,” she says.

Sarah takes them to dog reveals arranged by the UK Bully Kennel Club (not part of the 150-year-old Royal Kennel Club, which does not identify the American bully breed). “I’ve seen so many XL bullys at the shows and I’ve never seen any welfare issues or any dogs turning nasty,” Sarah says. “And, bear in mind, at shows they have to stand and have their mouth looked in, they have to be touched by a stranger,” she says.

In recent years, the club has actually had a hard time to discover places to host occasions, with councils stepping in or businesses taking out due to the breed’s aggravating credibility. There are a growing variety of individuals who believe the American bully, initially reproduced from the American pitbull terrier, which was banned in the UK in 1991is naturally or genetically hazardous. The Metropolitan authorities seized 44 American bullies in 2023 up to Mayalmost 3 times as numerous as the next most typical breed, Staffordshire bull terrier crossbreeds.

Conservative MP Sir John Hayes has actually been especially singing on the concern, stating in the House of Commons in June: “We need an urgent statement from the government, not to debate this matter but simply to confirm that this bad breed, bred to kill, should be banned.”

Organisations such as the RSPCA and the UK Bully Kennel Club, nevertheless, are waring breed-specific legislation and think animals need to be evaluated on their “deed not breed”. “Dog aggression is highly complex, and taking a breed-focused approach is fundamentally flawed,” the RSPCA has actually specified. “We believe focusing on the type of dog, rather than their individual actions, is a flawed and failing approach. We’re very concerned to see more discussions around adding another type of dog to the banned list.”

Earlier this year, a group of dog owners established Bully Watch, which is working to track which types are accountable for most of dog attacks in the UK by collecting social networks posts and news posts. They think from their research study that the American bully XL and bully mix types have actually been accountable for 45% of dog attacks, on human beings and other dogs, this year.

“It’s going to be skewed because if you get bitten by a sausage dog or a chihuahua, you’re probably not going to post about it,” says a representative for the group, asking not to offer their name due to issues about reaction from bully breeders. “But our sample size is 450 and growing, and it’s pretty consistent that American bully dogs are the No 1 culprit.”

Daren and others think some owners are training their dogs to be more aggressive to utilize them as status signs or guard dogs.

“You see people post photos on Instagram, and they have got the dogs on their hind legs up in the air with great big thick choker chains and collars and harnesses on them, giving it the big macho look,” he says.

“Unfortunately, some of the people that own these dogs are owning them as a statement,” concurs London-based animal professional photographer Chris Knight, who has actually photographed bully XL dogs lot of times. “They want something that looks big and scary, because they’re using it to intimidate people and to make themselves look tough. They’re giving the breed a bad name for everyone else.”

He has never ever had an issue with the breed, apart from one photoshoot he finished with a bully XL who was running around excitedly and requesting for stubborn belly rubs. “When he came skidding over to me he almost knocked me over because he is like a cannonball of muscle. If you had seen him down a dark alleyway, you would have probably been scared for your life.”

One of the factors Daren was very first drawn in to the bully XL was the money to be made from breeding them – with some dogs bring up to £10,000 – however he says the marketplace has actually ended up being diluted and pedigrees have actually not been kept.

He chose not to breed his own dogs since he was sceptical of the pedigree of much of the dogs that were recommended as matches.

“People just started throwing these dogs together thinking they were gonna get an easy buck,” he says. “They ended up not being able to get rid of them really, and pups that could have sold between £5,000-10,000, were then selling for under £500. So people kind of ruined the breed a little bit.”

The Bully Watch group, on the other hand, believe inbreeding might be among the factors behind the violent qualities, and says most bully XLs in the UK can be traced back to the very first couple of that were imported in about 2014/15, a few of which descend from dogs proven to be dangerous.

Earlier this year, a BBC Panorama investigation exposed the links in between organised criminal activity and severe dog breeding, where dogs are intentionally reproduced to produce overstated qualities such as unique facial functions or big muscles, with American bully dogs being among the primary victims.

“You have people who should never in a million years have bought a 65kg dog because they live in a small apartment or a bad environment,” says a representative for Bully Watch. “But there are also incidents where experienced dog handlers have been hurt when the dog has just turned. So we think there’s something else there and we think it might be genetic.”

Phil Marsden, from Wakefield in West Yorkshire, is a competitors judge, specialising in a variety of types consisting of American bullys, and has actually simply purchased his own bully XL puppy. “He’s a naughty puppy, like they all are, but I don’t see any violence,” he says. “With XLs, like with any breed, you get dogs who are nervous and you get dogs who are confident. But I interact with these dogs all the time at shows and they never threaten me.”

Marsden has actually dealt with dogs because the age of 7, and following a long profession as a stockman in farming, has actually invested the majority of his life around working dogs, training collies, lurchers and greyhounds. “I think there is a growing problem now with owners not taking responsibility for their dog’s actions,” he says.

“Not everyone understands how to train them properly.”

He says there have actually been comparable issues about possibly hazardous types for many years, such as rottweilers and dobermans, which prohibiting a breed might just move attention on to a brand-new one. “You take these off people and the likelihood is they’ll just move on to something else.”

What’s the option? “We need to look at getting more licensed breeding, so there is more oversight into where these puppies are coming from … People are bringing dogs in from other countries where regulations aren’t the same as they are in the UK.”

The federal government’s long-anticipated brand-new animal well-being (kept animals) costs, which would have limited the quantity of dogs imported, was dropped in May, with the RSPCA stating it was “frustrated and disappointed” at the news.

They have actually formerly campaigned for more stringent licensing for dog breeders, to make sure puppies are raised in healthy environments therefore purchasers have a clear concept of their dog’s parentage. New licensing was introduced in 2018.

Daren says he takes his dogs to a caravan park every summer season, where they have actually ended up being popular to the households who vacation there. “All my dogs want to do is play. My dogs have been around kids, my nieces and nephews, and they’ve never batted an eyelid, not a growl or a snarl.”

He understands that the very same can’t be said for all bully XLs. “If you train these dogs to be anything but obedient pets, you’ve got a massive problem, because they are far too strong and too powerful.”