Yesterday [Monday, 24 February] Cheshire Police reported that an 84-year-old man was seriously injured after being attacked by a dangerous dog, thought to be an XL Bully, after it escaped from a nearby address in Warrington. The police said the dog dragged him into a garden before attacking him, causing serious injuries.
The dog was soon destroyed by firearms officers outside the property, who shot at two dogs 19 times. A second XL Bully was also destroyed inside the property, and a third, smaller dog, was seized. The pensioner was taken to Aintree Hospital, where he remains in a critical yet stable condition.
Despite the news reports, a mum has defended her decision to keep her own two XL Bullies in the family home with her baby and toddler, stating in an exclusive interview with The Mirror: “Our dogs are family at the end of the day; I trust them, and I’m not worried about the children’s safety.”
Emma Davies, 36, from Sheffield, owns two XL Bullies. One is a six-year-old grey male called Koby, and the other is a four-year-old named Luna. She affectionately describes Koby as an “old gentleman and a big, gently giant”, while Luna is more of a “diva, who is louder and playful”.
Emma is also a mum to Theodore, age two, and five-month-old Penelope, whom she shares with her electrician partner Liam Cousins, 28. While Emma and her partner are happy to raise their children alongside the dogs, XL Bullies are known for being a dangerous breed – with there being many attacks, including fatal ones, in the UK in recent years.
Emma only has positive things to say about her own XL Bullies. She shared: “I trust them because we’ve lived with them, I know their temperament. I trust them around the kids and don’t worry about their safety. We’re not careless, and we don’t put our children at any risk.
“A lot of people just assume they’re going to attack the children because of what’s happened. But any dog is a dog, it shouldn’t just be deemed because of the way they look or because of what’s happened in the past, it should be on a case-by-case basis, how they are and their temperament.”
She continued: “People just think it’s a freefall, but we’re very controlled with it. You would never leave any dog alone with a child, you wouldn’t let your child climb on the dog, you just wouldn’t do that so we don’t let things like that happen.
“Our dogs are very good, super calm and good around the kids. They come and snuggle up, they like the closeness and are gentle. The kids love them, Theo, in particular, is obsessed with them.”
The couple welcomed their first child two years ago, but with two XL Bullies under the same roof, they faced intense backlash on a daily basis. Emma said: “When I first had Theo, someone asked me, ‘Have you got rid of the dogs then?’ and I thought you wouldn’t say that if it was another breed. You do get people who judge you for having two dogs in the house with the kids. People have even said that they need to be killed, it breaks my heart.
“We had loads of people saying to us, ‘You need to get rid of them’, even family members. Others have said, ‘It’s going to be too much for you’, ‘That’s not safe’, or ‘It’s not fair on the dogs’, but loads of people have two dogs and two children,” Emma explained.
“It was at the same time when they were making the news more. Before that, when we first had the dogs, they weren’t in the media, no one was talking about them, and there were no issues.”
With such a negative response to keeping their XL Bullies in the same house as their children, Emma said it added “a lot of pressure”. She said: “You know you’re having a baby, it’s a major life change, and it should be something to look forward to. But when people are saying to you, ‘You can’t have them in the house with young children; it’s not safe’, just based on what they’ve heard, it’s awful. It made me feel anxious, but I knew we had committed to these dogs, and we couldn’t get rid of them, they were like our children too.”
She added: “We had done a lot of training with them and got advice on how to introduce them to the baby. They were really inquisitive to begin with but were super gentle.”
If the children are crying, Emma said the dogs are “not bothered or remotely interested”, even if one of the children accidentally bops them on the head. “They’re just so used to it, and they’ve just got really good, gentle temperaments.
“I’ve had no concerns with them before, and I’ve always said if I ever felt that they were dangerous or were doing anything to us or the kids, they wouldn’t be in the house, but I’ve never felt like that.”
Despite having the legal right to own them due to their Certificate of Exemption, they continue to face some backlash. Emma said: “It does annoy me a little bit. I understand people are interested in the breed, and I don’t mind discussing it, but there’s a lot of stigma. We get a lot of judgement, even from strangers, and it has been hard.
“A lot of people cross the road if we’re walking to avoid us, but I think they’re on a lead; they’re not doing anything. There’s a lot of stigma.”
Among the ongoing negativity, Emma said that some people are “amazing” and make an extra effort to stop and talk to them while walking Coby and Luna. She said: “A lot of people say, ‘We love your dogs, ‘ especially if they live by us and have known them from the beginning.”
The couple welcomed their first XL Bully, Coby, into their home after rescuing him at 18 months old after his previous owners didn’t want him anymore. He was found living in a small garage and hadn’t been walked regularly.
Emma said: “Liam had always wanted an XL Bully and thought they were really nice dogs. He was looking for a dog during Covid and found Coby. He went to visit him and couldn’t leave him in that situation.
“We’ve done a lot of training with him, he was very well-natured, but there were a lot of things he couldn’t do, including walking upstairs, and he pulled on the lead. We put the work in to train him, and he’s absolutely fine now. He’s an old gentleman and so timid.”
A few years later, Emma and Liam were ready to welcome a second dog into their life and found Luna when she was a puppy. They knew from their first meeting they “had to have her”, and they took the little pup home. “Luna is definitely the boss, she’s the diva in the house. They’ve got their own characters and their own place with each other,” Emma happily voiced.
Emma is very vocal on TikTok and creates content in a bid to break the stigma of the breed and show the “positive side of them.”
