In the last five years, there have been 31 lethal dangerous dog attacks in the UK, of which around 17 involved confirmed or suspected XL Bully breed dogs, with two fatal attacks already this year
A new interactive map has revealed the locations across the UK where fatal attacks by dangerous dogs have taken place in the last five years.
It comes after two people have been killed already this year in savage attacks by XL Bully dogs, bringing the number of fatal attacks since 2020 to 31. In February, 19-year-old Morgan Dorsett from Shropshire died after being attacked by an XL Bully at a home in Bristol. A neighbour described seeing a blood-soaked woman “hysterically screaming” and “crying” after the attack. A resident told The Mirror: “I just saw a flash of blue lights and police and all of a sudden we heard this screaming and shouting. I came out and in a garden of the flat over the road she was sitting on the step and I noticed then she was covered head to toe in blood and she was absolutely completely hysterical. She sat there shouting: ‘Please, please help her’.”
READ MORE: Bristol XL Bully attack: Neighbours heard chilling noises as dog mauled woman in home
The following month, John McColl, 84, died after being savaged by an XL Bully while walking down the street in Warrington. The cherished grandad was attacked in February and spent a month in hospital before dying of his injuries on March 30.
Mr McColl was dragged into a garden by the dog during the attack after it escaped a nearby property. The dog then launched a vicious attack on the man, inflicting serious injuries, before firearms officers arrived and shot at the dog more than a dozen times, killing it. A second suspected XL Bully was also destroyed at the premises while a third, smaller dog, was seized.
30-year-old Sean Garner, of Bardsley Avenue, Warrington, was charged with owning a dog dangerously out of control causing serious injury and two counts of possession or custody of a dog to which section 1 of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 applied, namely an XL Bully. Mr McColl’s family said in a statement after his death: “We are absolutely devastated with what has happened to John.
“He fought hard for the last five weeks but he decided he could not fight any more, and passed away on Sunday March 30 at 1.40pm surrounded by family. Our dad, grandad and great grandad will always be loved by us all and sadly missed by each and every one of us.”
Of the 31 attacks in the last 5 years, around 17 involved an XL Bully or suspected XL Bully. Others involved American bulldogs, pitbulls, Cane Corso dogs and Rottweilers, among other breeds.
Possession of an XL Bully without a certificate of exemption was banned last year in February, and since the ban more than 55,000 dogs have been placed on a government database. As of January this year, almost a year after the ban was introduced, more than 4,500 suspected illegal dogs have been seized by police.
The number of attacks by XL Bullies is expected to decrease over the next decade, along with a decline in ownership of the dogs.
Owners of the breed must now register and neuter them, keeping them muzzled and on a lead when in public places. It is also illegal to breed or pass them on.
However, Gwent Police Chief Constabkle Mark Hobrough warned that gangs are already breeding new types of aggressive dogs that do not fall under the legislation. He said: “This is something we are going to have to evolve to deal with as an organisation.”