If we don’t crack down on these savage Frankenstein XL Bully dogs AND their owners then more people will die, writes canine behavioural expert STAN RAWLINSON
There are no bad dogs, so the saying goes — only bad owners. But that is a lie.
The mantra was coined by TV dog trainer Barbara Woodhouse in the 1980s, before the emergence of the American XL Bully — a Frankenstein dog, created by a mixture of aggressive cross-breeding and genetic modification in the U.S.
XL Bullies have no place in a domestic setting. They are fighting dogs, with hair-trigger instincts to maul and kill.
The attack on an 11-year-old girl in Bordesley Green, Birmingham, on Saturday — which put the child and two adults who intervened in hospital — was the latest in a shocking escalation of incidents that saw six people killed last year by XL Bullies, out of ten dog-related deaths, and two more the previous year.
Fatalities include ten-year-old Jack Lis, savaged by a dog called Beast when he called at a friend’s house in 2021. Owners Brandon Hayden, then 19, and Amy Salter, 29, both from Caerphilly, were jailed for four-and-a-half years and three years respectively.
STAN RAWLINSON: XL Bullies have no place in a domestic setting. They are fighting dogs, with hair-trigger instincts to maul and kill (stock image)
Fatalities include ten-year-old Jack Lis, savaged by a dog called Beast when he called at a friend’s house in 2021. Owners Brandon Hayden, then 19, and Amy Salter, 29, both from Caerphilly, were jailed for four-and-a-half years and three years respectively
Other victims include experienced dog handlers, such as father-of-five Adam Watts who was mauled to death at his kennels in Auchterhouse, near Dundee, the same year.
In January, dog walker Natasha Johnston was set upon by a pack of eight dogs at the Gravelly Hill beauty spot in Caterham, Surrey. It was her own XL Bully that killed her.
I’ve worked as a ‘Doglistener’ for 40 years, training difficult pets owned by celebrities and international royalty, in addition to working as Disney’s dog behaviour specialist in the UK. When the Dangerous Dogs Act was introduced in 1991, I was recognised by the courts as an expert witness.
READ MORE: EXCLUSIVE Schoolgirl, 11, mauled by crazed XL Bully reveals how she’s ‘too frightened to leave home’ as she describes ‘devil’ dog’s savage attack on her and multiple other people after ‘suffering heat exhaustion’ in horrific rampage
But in all my years of working with dogs, it is only the XL Bully that I have refused to handle. The breed is simply too aggressive and unpredictable.
It horrifies me to see people walking the streets with these animals on leashes. They can grow to the size of American mountain lions, and be equally savage and strong.
It’s unthinkable for people to keep big cats without licences in Britain — and it should be equally unthinkable for XL Bullies to remain legal and unlicensed.
The injuries these dogs can cause defy belief. With their oversized jaws and block-like heads, they have a bite like a steel trap. Just as dangerous is the part you cannot see: their killer instinct. They are predators, wired to spot prey, stalk it, chase it at sprints of up to 35 mph, and dismember it.
That’s what the dog in Birmingham appeared to be trying to do. It was so powerfully built that when one of the men tried to fight it off, hitting it with all his force across the head with a shovel, the dog was undeterred.
The girl, Ana Paun, was lucky to survive. XL Bullies instinctively drag their prey to the ground by the limbs, then go for the neck.
Cradling a bandaged left forearm, Ana told the Mail: ‘I’m now too frightened to leave home and I’m very wary of dogs.’
She added: ‘The pain isn’t too bad as I’m on antibiotics, but I still feel really shaken up. I thought the dog might do more serious damage or, worse, kill me.’
If you’re attacked, your best chance is to curl up into a ball, protecting your vital organs, and hope it thinks you are dead. A child’s wails will sound to the dog like the squeals of a wounded animal, stimulating its blood lust even further.
I’ve always argued against banning whole breeds from the UK. Such a law would be difficult to implement, and with previous problem breeds it was simply too draconian.
But we have no choice with XL Bullies. The dog is so dangerous that more people will be killed if we continue to allow them to be kept without strict controls and licences.
The girl, Ana Paun (pictured), was lucky to survive. XL Bullies instinctively drag their prey to the ground by the limbs, then go for the neck. Cradling a bandaged left forearm, Ana told the Mail: ‘I’m now too frightened to leave home and I’m very wary of dogs’
They began to be bred in the 1980s, by crossing American Bulldogs and American Pitbull Terriers. Other strains were introduced, including the Cane Corso, the American Staffordshire Bull Terrier (very different from the English variety, a gentle creature) and various mastiff types.
The aim was to mimic the extreme bodybuilder look; all straining muscles and power. To heighten this, the most aggressive animals in each litter were picked to sire the next generation.
Worse was to come, when idiotic and irresponsible breeders in the States started experimenting with genetic modification — doctoring sperm and eggs in the lab, and breeding from the test tube. Because of this tampering, some have been known to weigh over 150 lb, or 11 stone. This is the stuff of sci-fi nightmares.
READ MORE: EXCLUSIVE: Poll reveals more than 90 per cent of Brits say XL Bully dogs should be banned as yet another young child is attacked by ‘mutant’ pet… so what do YOU think?
When these dogs were imported, people had no idea what they were buying. And then the pandemic came — and owners desperate to make money began cashing in on the demand for lockdown dogs.
Amateur breeders had no idea how to care for the puppies during the crucial first 16 weeks of life. Dogs that do not learn to socialise with humans and other animals will always be susceptible to behaviour problems.
During lockdown, socialisation was harder than ever — yet the UK dog population soared, from eight million to 13 million. Numbers of XL Bullies in Britain are thought to be in their tens of thousands.
This has been a problem with all sorts of breeds, but only the XL Bully has an inbuilt predilection for carnage.
I have been warning of this for many months, but until this week neither the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) nor the Government as a whole has been willing to listen.
Nor it seems are some owners. I’ve heard pleas all week that their own pet is special and harmless. One woman told me that, though she is a careful owner and would never leave her children unattended with the family’s XL Bully, she has no qualms about letting her toddler play with the dog.
That made my blood run cold. I tried and failed to make her understand: if that dog turns on the children, she will be powerless to protect them. It’s like letting them play with a loaded shotgun.
Breeders in America claim on their websites that the breed is child-friendly and sociable. They could be wearing rose-tinted glasses, or are lying.
But it might also be true that the British sub-breed is deadlier, because it comes from a narrow gene pool that began with a few, hyper-ferocious imported animals.
It’s good news that Home Secretary Suella Braverman (pictured) is seeking ‘urgent advice’ on what to do next. The first step, and this is something Defra can do overnight, is to ban all XL Bully imports
It’s good news that Home Secretary Suella Braverman is seeking ‘urgent advice’ on what to do next. The first step, and this is something Defra can do overnight, is to ban all XL Bully imports.
The second is to oblige all XL Bully breeders, with immediate effect, to be registered and approved. It is completely unacceptable that anyone with one of these dogs can use it to produce a litter and then sell them without any oversight.
Thirdly, it should be obligatory for all existing XL Bullies to be registered on a national database — with their owners required to prove themselves fit and responsible keepers.
We should not have to wait until an attack before owners can be prosecuted. The police should be able to impound dogs that are not registered.
These are drastic steps. But we have never faced a problem like the XL Bully before.
If we don’t act now, more people will die.
- Stan Rawlinson’s website is doglistener.co.uk
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