Dr. Newport explains the rising violence of the XL bully in the UK and why breed matters.
London, UK - Dr. Lawrence Newport, a law and criminology lecturer at Royal Holloway University, recently published a video about the growing violence of the XL bully in the UK. Last year, we issued a special report calling on the UK to define a status dog phenotype, because too many pit bull-type dogs are evading the "banned breeds" in the Dangerous Dog Act. The Act bans American pit bull terriers but does not restrict "designer" pit bull breeds, such as the XL pit bull or XL bully.
Dr. Newport takes viewers on a historical journey that most readers of this website already know: the history of the pit bull breed and why breed matters. "So why is it so controversial to say that a breed is more violent than any other?" he asks. "After all we know that different dog breeds have different traits." Newport then uses the exceptionally apt comparison of racing dogs, who endure horrific lives of confinement and abuse, but have never been implicated in a fatal dog mauling.1
After eight fatal dog maulings over a 4-week period in the U.S., of which 88% (7/8) involved pit bulls and the other involved a large bull terrier and cane corso, we wanted to share Dr. Newport's research in this area. "Whilst not all dogs of a breed will show these characteristics, breed matters. To say it doesn't ignores thousands of years of history," he states. We add that denying breed matters also ignores thousands of years of human observation and selection for specific traits.
Dr. Newport explains the rising violence of the XL bully in the UK and why breed matters.
Related videos:
08/04/23: The Spectator Interviews Journalist Ed West and Dr. Newport About the XL Bully
Related articles:
10/11/22: Pair of Family XL Pit Bulls Kill Two Children, Severely Injure Mother in Tennessee
06/30/20: Family XL Pit Bull Described as 'Mild-Mannered' Kills Female Owner in Nova Scotia
07/31/18: Beautiful Face Destroyed by a Family XL Pit Bull in a Multi-Pit Bull Household
04/11/14: Family XL Pit Bull Kills 4-Year Old Girl in Houma, Louisiana; Kimbo Debate Ensues
The FACT is that bloodsport dogs are not appropriate, safe, or sane as PET animals.
All pits should be spayed or neutered, have extra containment and insurance requirements, and their owners should be properly educated on their unstable temperaments and the use of a BREAK STICK. But of course if that was done most people would not choose a pit and the grifting would quickly end.
I’m past all that now KaD.
At this point, since fighting dogs is illegal, so should owning the breed be illegal.
Federally.
No more dancing around. No more downloading the problem onto provinces/states/municipalities.
It’s not legal to breed tigers in captivity except for in a licensed zoo because it’s too costly to keep track of who is responsible and who is not.
Yes the “big cat lovers” fought that legislation too as it cut into their profits but eventually, common sense prevailed.
This isn’t a pitbull problem. It’s a human problem.
Set a date when they’ll be illegal, euthanize any that come into shelters, animal control or picked up loose or unneutered for a decade or who show any signs of aggression or at the will of the owner for free and let that be the end of it.
BSL*was* the compromise. It’s failing. We tried. They didn’t.
Enough.
@Boni, I agree with you 100%.
True and I’m all for taking pits from the idiots who own them and shooting the dogs but the public isn’t going to stand for that. Even if every pit was sterilized tomorrow something would still have to be done about the millions already around.
That’s why I’m saying one decade to completion, KAD.
Any pitbull not in a home as of the first date, will be rounded up and humanely euthanized. Any pitbulls that wind up in the hands of authorities/shelters for any reason or not spayed/neutered is humanely euthanized. This puts the onus on those that presently own them to keep them out of trouble or risk that pitbull’s life. Also, all pitbulls must be muzzled and leashed in public at all times or again, euthanized.
The decade onward date (or dozen years) is when nobody will be allowed to own one for any reason.
Because it’s clear, like the feral cat explosion, what we’re doing is not working and in the case of pitbulls–their lobbyists and supporters are actively contributing to the deaths of the elderly and children at this point. That doesn’t even include that the majority of dogs killed by other dogs are overwhelmingly killed by pitbulls. Livestock killings alone are costing everyone billions in increased insurance rates.
In the end, it’s a numbers game. Why are we paying billions to shelter pitbulls that nobody, wants?
Humane euthanasia is far less cruel than leaving these animals locked in a small cage, miserable, for the rest of their lives no matter what the pitbull culties, claim.
Pitbulls are about profit over people no matter what the pitbull enthusiasts, claim.
THANK YOU ! Everyone needs to watch this video.
does anyone manufacture a chain mail muzzle?
forget spay / neuter, they need to be put down
By breeding pit bulls larger and larger (also known as Bully XLs) England’s law enforcement is hindered by their practice of “measuring” dogs and comparing those measurements to the ORIGINAL breed standard as published by the ADBA (American Dog Breeders Association, the dog registry that caters to the dog fighting industry). The standard defines a rather small dog, not the enormous beefy dogs that are bred nowadays and called Bully XLs. The larger dogs are so far outside of the original definition of a pit bull that they “fall through the cracks” and are NOT outlawed or designated as prohibited under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, even though the scope and purpose of the original Act was meant to ban these same types of dogs. Today we see the results of the play between specifically worded legislation, solicitors/lawyers challenging the law by nitpicking the details, and a public trying to find loopholes and work-arounds of the law, until we have legislation that is ineffective and needs updating.
If pit bulls are banned in England, so should the American Bully. They’re pit bulls that have been crossed with the more dangerous mastiff breeds (Presa Canarios, Cane Corsos) to increase the size.
No one ones a dog like that unless they want to intimidate people. Those things aren’t pets. Just look at them – they are ugly as sin and they just look mean.
owns, not ones.
The point about greyhounds is also bang on. I had a very large greyhound for many years and he was incredibly good-tempered and gentle. I had no problems whatsoever with that dog. He raced for several years in Florida and would have spent a huge proportion of his life in a small kennel.
XL American Bullies kind of look more like monsters from a fantasy realm than normal pet dogs. I’ll never understand why anyone would want something like that.
I had an acquaintance that knew I dislike pits put a pic of his newly acquired XL pit on his FB and tagged me and other friends with a “what would you name him” title. Got a bunch of killer and intimidating names suggested, of course, for his “all in how you raise ‘em dog”. I said I’d name him target or bullseye. He got really pissed and unfriended me. LOL
How about Maulie? Or Shredder? Or Terminator?
Having watched several parliamentary discussions about the UK Dangerous Dogs Act it seems clear that politicians are generally in favour of abandoning BSL. It is claimed that after the 1991 ban of the four breeds that there is no evidence of fewer attacks by those breeds. It is also claimed that the recent rise in deaths by dogs not covered by BSL shows that BSL doesn’t work.
The political focus is centered on improving education and training of dog owners due to the belief that dog attacks are caused by bad owners.
The politicians are completely ignorant of just how different Bulldog breeds act when compared to other dog breeds. They are convinced that a dangerous dog is aggressive all the time and must have been trained that way. They have no understanding of how affectionate and loving a Bulldog breed can be immediately before and after a violent episode.
When the BSL is repealed in the UK, as seems inevitable at this point, the UK will become a no-go area for any other dog or vulnerable human.
I can think of a BSL that could work. Breed-Specific Litigation.
As in, after every pit bull nip, bite, mauling, whatever, a lawsuit gets filed. And not just against the dog owner but against the pit bull-pushing shelters and enablers in the dog industrial complex, aka the pet industry.
Follow the money. And sue it.
Reminds me of how Miami Dade County is repeatedly held up as “proof” that BSL doesn’t work.
Never mind that the shelters and AC refuse to enforce the law.
Pits are banned but you would never know by looking at all the “lab mixes” that have butt cracks running down the middle of their skulls listed on the shelter web pages.
Right on Quiet.
They’re using the money to kill us, we need to use money to stop them.
Because in the end with these people, it’s all about the money.
Billions into sheltering, millions or more into advertising pitbulls as safe pets, billions more made in the dogfighting industry that these “pitbulls are pets” shillers are running cover, for.
If they have enough money to lobby, shelter and support this breed they have enough money to pay to the victims.
It’s a start.
In the end however, what the rich don’t want gets criminalized and the court is paid for by the taxpayer. When the rich want lawsuits it’s because the non-wealthy don’t have enough money to drag them through court.
Amazing that the UK can come to the conclusion that APBTs are dangerous yet apparently what makes them dangerous is the fact that they are too small.
Rather than fix the dangerous dogs act the refrain I see the most in the press is “Oh, well, we should just scrap the whole thing and let anyone own any dog they want. All dogs are wonderful anyway.”
Seems like closing the loopholes would make a lot more sense.
BTW that dog in the thumb nail is the ugliest dog I have ever seen.
I wonder if that is scar tissue on its snout that makes it look like that.
I am reminded of the joke “If my dog had a face like that I would shave its butt and teach it to walk backwards.”
Fortunately I won’t EVER own a dog that looks anything like that.
I can’t see myself ever owning a dog but if I did it wouldn’t be some mutant mauler.