The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, vows to ban the American XL bully breed.
Vows to Ban XL Bully
London, UK - On Friday, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, announced that the government will ban the XL bully by the end of the year. "It's clear this is not about a handful of badly trained dogs. It's a pattern of behavior, and it cannot go on," Sunak said in a televised statement. The announcement came after two dogs, believed to be XL bullies, killed 52-year old Ian Price one day earlier in Stonnall, and after multiple fatal attacks inflicted by XL bullies in the past two years.
"The American XL bully dog is a danger to our communities particularly our children," Sunak said Friday. "I share the nation's horror at the recent videos we've all seen. Yesterday, we saw another suspected XL bully dog attack, which has tragically led to a fatality," Sunak said. "Today I have tasked ministers to bring together police and experts to firstly define the breed of dog behind these attacks with a view to then outlawing it. It is not currently a breed defined in law," minister Sunak said.
"We will then ban the breed under the Dangerous Dogs Act, and new laws will be in place by the end of the year. These dogs are dangerous. I want to reassure the public that we will take all necessary steps to keep people safe," Sunak said in his statement. Last July, DogsBite.org discussed how the UK government could define this status bull breed, known interchangeably as an XL pit bull or XL bully. The XL is one of four sizes of the bully but the United Kennel Club (UKC) only recognizes one.
According to the American Bully Kennel Club (ABKC), the Standard bully -- the only size the UKC recognized in 2013 -- and the Classic bully are both medium to large sized blocky headed bull breeds with muscular bodies between 17 and 20 inches at the withers. The Classic has a lighter body frame with the appearance of an "old style American pit bull terrier." The XL reflects the "heavily muscled, massive, bulky body type" of the Standard but is beyond 20 inches, states the ABKC website.
The American bully is not recognized by the American Kennel Club (AKC) in the United States or the Royal Kennel Club (RKC) in the United Kingdom.
According to the UKC, the American bully is a "natural extension of the American pit bull terrier." As we stated in our piece last July, too many close pit bull breeds have been able to evade detection under the Dangerous Dogs Act. Along with the XL bully, American bulldogs should also be outlawed by the Act. American bulldogs began being imported and cross-bred in the UK as early as 19991 and are part of the foundation stock -- a "cross-breed ingredient" -- in the development of the XL bully.
Size of a Serial Killer
What about the multiple sizes of the bully? If the XL bully ban is due to a "pattern of behavior," does it matter if the dog is 17 or 20 inches at the withers? One person recently asked us, "Would we not arrest Ted Bundy if he were shorter than another serial killer?" The fourth size, the pocket bully, is under 17 inches. The "Pocket bully," despite their misleading name, as these dogs are weighty and muscular, are not part of the UK conversation currently, but the Standard and Classic bully sizes should be.2
Furthermore, the Classic bully is nearly indistinguishable from the pit bull terrier, according to the ABKC's website. The only difference is that the Classic has "overall more bone and substance than the modern and more 'terrier type' American Pit Bull Terrier and American Staffordshire Terrier." If any of the American bully-types are already UKC registered American pit bull terriers, they are eligible to be transferred to the American bully breed, according to documentation on the UKC's website.
"Killer Kimbo"
The UKC's Most Wanted Kimbo bloodline has also been a focal point in the UK recently. We first learned of Kimbo in 2014 after one of his offspring, "Niko," killed 4-year old Mia Derouen. At that time, Kimbo was well known in the bully community to "spit HA (Human Aggression) in his offspring." A researcher with UK-based Bully Watch, Gloria Zsigmond, recently determined that half of all breeding American bullies in the UK are linked to Kimbo's bloodline. The XL bully gene pool is that narrow.
We also addressed Kimbo last year after a pair of "family" XL pit bulls killed two children and nearly killed their mother. The one-year anniversary of the double fatal mauling of 5-month old Hollace and 2-year old Lilly Bennard is October 5. One or both of these dogs descended from the RGB King Lion bloodline. Both King Lion and Kimbo are known as "godfathers" of the XL bully movement. If they're not in your XL bully's pedigree, you're not buying a "top quality dog," states the XL bully fan club.
Critics of the Ban
A primary critic of the prime minister's announcement to ban the XL bully is the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA). The argument of the RSPCA, an organization that has no mission to protect human lives, can be summed up by a wholly false statement recently made to The Spectator: "There is no specific research to demonstrate that selection for fighting results in dogs that are more aggressive towards people than other dogs," said RSPCA spokesperson Sam Gaines.
"Breed-specific laws are Constitutional in the United States because it has been proven in our courts that due to the selection for fighting, pit bulls, compared to other breeds, exhibit behavioral traits during an attack that have a higher likelihood of causing more severe injuries and death." - DogsBite.org, September 17, 2023 3,4,5
The RSPCA recently came under fire by proponents of the XL bully ban after it was publicized that the RSPCA's pet insurance policy refuses to cover any third party liability claims for dogs required to be registered under the 1991 Dangerous Dogs Act, or any American bulldog, American Staffordshire terrier, Irish Staffordshire terrier, presa canario, cane corso, bandog, South African mastiff, additional mastiffs, wolf-dog hybrids and any cross-breeds of these dog breeds, like the American XL bully.
Six large bull breed-crosses that seriously injured or killed a person in the UK since 2016.
2Not long after publishing this post, an account of a 13-year old boy savagely attacked by a pocket bully in the UK in June 2023 emerged. His mother said, "They look like the big ones but are smaller and are just as dangerous." The pockets are not necessarily small dogs. Though lower to the ground, they can be extremely chunky and powerful. "He thought he was going to die. The dog was smashing into the door to try and get back to him.”
3Constitutionality of Breed-Specific Laws in the United States - DogsBite.org
4United States Appellate Court Decisions Regarding the Dangerousness of Pit Bulls - DogsBite.org
5One City's Experience: Why Pit Bulls are More Dangerous and Breed-Specific Legislation in Justified, by Kory A. Nelson, Senior Assistant City Attorney for the City of Denver, Municipal Lawyer, July/August 2005.
Related videos:
08/04/23: The Spectator Interviews Journalist Ed West and Dr. Newport About the XL Bully
Related articles:
07/07/23: Rational Voice Emerges in the UK as Violence by the XL Bully Surges - Dr. Newport
10/11/22: Pair of Family XL Pit Bulls Kill Two Children, Severely Injure Mother in Tennessee
07/22/22: UK Should Define a Status Dog Phenotype; Too Many Pit Bull-Type Dogs Evade 'Ban'...
04/11/14: Family XL Pit Bull Kills 4-Year Old Girl in Houma, Louisiana; Kimbo Debate Ensues
There is no need for pit bulls.
“The RSPCA, an organization that has no mission to protect human lives” – sadly accurate.
The oddity in that statement is that the RSPCA was formed BEFORE there were any child protection/abuse laws and it was successfully argued that humans, and therefore children, were animals and that’s how the first charity for the prevention of abuse of children in the UK was formed (item 8 here: https://www.rspca.org.uk/-/24-ways-we-ve-made-a-difference-for-animals-over-the-last-196-years-c2-a0)
I think this is the same veterinarian – public safety not so much an interest of his.
“Chris Lawrence, Chief Veterinary Officer of the Dogs Trust pointed out in his presentation that any breed of dog could bite, and that breed and size of dogs was not the issue.”
https://www.ourdogs.co.uk/News/2007/February2007/020207/apgaw.htm
How do you compare the deaths of hundreds of people from dog attacks to the death of thousands of people from pathogens spread by dogs, or hundreds of millions of people getting sick from pathogens, allergens and parasites spread by dogs?
I was more horrified by the attack I suffered from our family dog when I was five and being attacked by other peoples’ dogs than I was by the eczema I suffered while we had a dog in our home. As a volunteer health and safety representative at the schools I taught at I learned of the scope of disease spread by dogs in human environments and came to believe this was a gbigger issue than the suffering caused by dog attacks. The scope is surprising.
We had a teacher suffering respiratory infections. The only thing I could see was a lot of dog faeces outside his classroom. At the time I thought nothing of it because I thought faeces was a form of fertilizer.
While reading health and safety research papers about a decade later, I came across research at Bari University and the University of Colorado in Denver that found about 50% of the pathogens found in urban environments came from dog faeces.
I learned dog faeces has twenty times the pathogens, allergens and parasites of human faeces. The density of dogs in cities is over 6000 times greater than the density of wolves in natural environments.
From sites of the EPA, CDC and WHO I learned the most common diseases humans get from dogs are gastrointestinal infections, respiratory infections and skin infections. I saw photographs of eczema that looked like what I had as a child. A few pennies dropped. That teacher with the respiratory infections was probably infected by dog faeces.
If hundreds of millions of people are mades sick by pathogens spread by dogs, and tens of thousands of people die, per year, from those diseases, the death and suffering caused by the pathogens spread by dogs may be thousands of times what is caused by dog attacks. How do we put that into perspective?
I would like to learn the facts about this – it’s not something I hear much about. I know that my city closes the ocean to swimming after a big rain because the water becomes polluted by dog feces. And I have heard of toddlers going blind after canine fecal parasites get into their eyes.
I wonder if we could improve the situation with education. We need more good, factual documentaries about the societal problems pet dogs cause.
I’ve noticed that I’m much healthier living in a home without any kind of pet.
I also fail to understand the attraction of pet ownership. I mean, come on. It revolves around holding a creature in captivity and making it utterly and totally dependent on you. In essence, that’s slavery.
The problem here isn’t that dogs bite.
It’s that pitbulls *maul*.
With BSL we will still have some dogs, for various reasons including idiopathic rage syndrome, genetic flaws or poor handling and even including that–the amount of *mauling* will drop exponentially.
Dogs and humans have a symbiotic relationship and have since the dawn of humankind.
We get all kinds of diseases from various domestic and non-domestic animals and have lived with that reality for hundreds of thousands of years.
What we don’t do is make excuses for other animals, domestic or wild, behaviour when they willingly attack humans.
We euthanize wild animals that attack villages and horses that kill their owners because that’s what makes sense.
We don’t breed more of the domestic animals that are dangerous because that would be stupid.
Oh wait…
Well said. And it’s staggering that the basic common-sense attitude toward domestic animals which prevailed for thousands of years has suddenly been totally subverted by this bizarre societal sickness of dog-worship. And I say that as someone who enjoys dogs and owns one!
Makes sense. These XL American Bullies are basically pit bulls that have been mixed with aggressive mastiff breeds to make them even bigger, stronger, and, frankly, uglier.
Just look at the dogs in those pictures. I usually like dogs, but those look like actual monsters (which I guess they are, given that they killed people).
This website is about dog bites, not diseases allegedly caught from animals. People pick up more diseases from other people than from dogs.
Maybe these “infected” dogs were infected by people.
I get Pseudomonas skin infections. Who do I blame? The garden!
A classmate of mine nearly died of a lung problem caused by a systemic fungal infection.
The carrier was birds.
Although children can get migration of roundworm larvae to the eyes, it’s not extremely common. I think how treatable it is depends on a correct diagnosis. In addition, there are treatments available which may be able to preserve vision.
In the past, this diagnosis has been missed. Eyes with this problem have been enucleated due to the belief there was cancer in the eye.
Furthermore, far more people die in automobile crashes than
die from dog bites. Does that mean we should allow dogs to kill people. I think not.
Nor do I think that COVID-19 came from dogs.
its takes just a quick glance at these so called pedigrees to see what the problem is , I’m certain back in the day inbreeding was common place in part due to attempts to fix type and geographic isolation. But even back then they knew there was consequences , inbreeding of Bull terriers locked in deleterious genes hence the continued rage syndrome seen in those , the level of inbreeding combined with the original bloodstock being inbred itself is leading to implosion , basically overabundance of deleterious genes , to get UC Davis on the case and call out UKC and its inbreeding NO OTHER KENNEL CLUB ALLOWS THAT
Add into that, Kelly, that 90% of these monstrosities don’t breed naturally because the females may fight back and kill or maim the sire.
The females are secured in a rape rack to make sure the stud is undamaged. This is similar to wolf dog breeding where the breeders peg out the female husky/GSD in heat and pray the wolf doesn’t kill her. If it does, oh well…NEXT!
It’s barbaric.
Add in the backyard breeders because these pitbull breeding simpletons don’t require nor check up on, breeding contracts. Nor, unlike actual good breeders, will they take back an unsuitable pup and refund the payment or offer a better litter pick next time.
That’s why this has turned into such a sheetshow of malevolent pitbull/pitbull mixes.
Nice to hear some good news for a change.
I never understood why pit bulls were illegal but really big pit bulls were A-OK.
I still don’t understand why a pit is legal if you call it a Staffordshire Terrier, a brand name made up by John P. Colby.
If you do a search for him you find a bunch of pages talking about how his pit bulls were the best and won a lot fights. Somehow the Brits are convinced since they have a local name they are a homegrown and safe dog.
They are not.
Still if XL Maulers get banned it can only help save lives.
Here’s hoping animal control finds a spine and enforces the new law rather than playing the name game.
Not bloody well likely but I can hope.
Enforcement is the KEY here. All this whinging and whining from the Pitbull owners acting like somehow it’s all so egregious…
We have BSL. I was dodging an idiot with a shorty and a regular pitbull. The regular pitbull started barking at my dog as we got on the bus. Not impressed.
A few weeks later, same idiot–*another* regular-sized pitbull.
The other day I was on that corner and he had, one XL, one shorty pitbull and two regular pitbulls, walking them altogether. He’s all of 5’8″ and 180lbs. If even one of those dogs went off, he’d be dragged through the street before he could stop them.
And NONE of them had a muzzle. Not one. Also, it’s *illegal* without a kennel license in this city to own more than three dogs. And he lives in an apartment where he runs his dogs loose on their big front lawn. Clearly, the landlord isn’t enforcing any codes, either.
So, that’s illegal kennelling, leash law breaking AND ignoring BSL with *four* dogs.
Zero enforcement.
Clearly (as long as they’ve funded and endorse enforcement) the Brits are smarter than we are.
Which you wouldn’t think, given that they’re a super dog-loving culture that until a few years ago–often brought their dogs to the pubs for a night of partying and many had dogs wandering around leashless–yet they’re ahead of us.