One year on from the XL Bully ban, police say it has “driven down” dog attacks but warn that organised crime gangs are now breeding new dangerous animals to get around the new law
Police have seized more than 4,500 suspected illegal dogs since the introduction of a new law banning unregistered XL Bullies.
Possession of the animals without a certificate of exemption was banned last February and has resulted in more than 55,000 being placed on a government database. The number of attacks by XL Bullies is expected to decrease over the next decade in correlation with a decline in ownership of the dogs. XL Bullies have been blamed for at least 17 fatal attacks since 2020.
Owners must now register and neuter them, and keep them muzzled and on a lead in public. It is illegal to breed or pass them on. Chief Constable Mark Hobrough said: “A big thank you to everyone who registered their dogs. I don’t think anybody could have anticipated the numbers.” He added: “Undoubtedly the ban and our response to it has driven down the number of dog attacks and we are pleased that the public continues to support us by reporting suspected XL Bully dogs in their local area.”
In the first year of the ban, there have been nine reported fatal dog attacks in England and Wales. Five of these incidents have involved XL Bullies. Mr Hobrough said he expects the number of attacks to increasingly fall in the coming years. He said: “It will not be in organised crime’s interests to produce these dogs on the scale they were previously because you are catering for a limited market.”
But he warned that gangs are already breeding new types of aggressive dogs that do not come under the legislation. He said: “This is something we are going to have to evolve to deal with as an organisation.”
XL Bullies were outlawed under the Dangerous Dogs Act after a Mirror campaign called for tougher rules. Mr Hobrough, of Gwent Police in south-east Wales, said last year: “It’s campaigns like the one your own paper promoted that have brought this to the profile of the Government to change legislation.”
There are 220 dog legislation officers, with at least one in every police force. Since the ban came in 4,586 suspected illegal dogs have been seized. A further 4,885 animals were held for being out of control or related concerns. Mr Hobrough said 848 unregistered illegal dogs were put down by police at a cost of £340,000 after they were handed in after the ban came into force.
None of the owners were prosecuted because it was not deemed in the “public interest”, he said. Between 2001 and 2021 there were an average of three fatal dog attacks a year, compared with 23 over the following two-year period. Mr Hobrough, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for dangerous dogs, described the issue as a “priority”. He said: “I actively encourage people to report dogs that they’re concerned about within their community so we can take the appropriate action.”
He added the XL Bully ban will cost the police an estimated £25million in vet and kennels costs alone in the year following the ban. The figure is up 500% from the £4million it cost police in 2018. It was a “a huge burden on policing” and forces are in discussions about being given extra funding. Police are also calling for new legislation to allow less serious cases to be dealt with outside of court.
Mr Horbrough said: “The demand has been and continues to be simply huge. We are facing a number of challenges in kennel capacity, resourcing and ever-mounting costs and as of today, we have not received any additional funding to account for this.”
