Police chiefs have put forward ‘a strong request’ for funding to help enforce the ban on XL Bully dogs.
A recent inquiry discovered that the police have been euthanizing over three dangerous dogs each day on average following the prohibition of XL Bully dogs that was implemented almost a year ago.
Law enforcement agencies in England and Wales have revealed that the expense of housing thousands of confiscated dogs, often for extended periods, has reached £25 million annually, a burden that falls on the shoulders of the taxpayers, especially with many facilities operating at maximum capacity.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) has acknowledged that the legislation has placed substantial strain on police departments, leading to a considerable increase in costs that have been deemed ‘remarkable’.
Despite dangerous dogs being seized and destroyed, the number of attacks shows no sign of falling in many areas.
A BBC Freedom of Information request found that out of 25 police forces that responded, 22 said they predict they will see more reported incidents this year.
Lisa Willis, who was attacked by an XL Bully months after the ban came into force on December 31 last year, said the law was ‘useless’.
She said that the owners of dogs like the one that mauled her arm should not be allowed to buy further animals. The owner of the dog that attacked her replaced his dog ‘within weeks’.
Christopher Bell (pictured) with his tan and white XL Bully called Titan which attacked a dog walker in October
Patrick McKeown (pictured), 40, became the first known person in the UK to be prosecuted under the dangerous dog laws in April. His XL Bully is pictured on the right
McKeown, a former builder who lived on Church Road, Tarring, is pictured with his dog’s chain around his neck
A crackdown on restricting the breeding and sale of XL Bullies came into force on December 31 last year following a spate of horrific attacks on the public. Then in February, it became illegal to own the breed unless it was registered before the deadline.
The XL Bully became the fifth breed to be banned in Britain, adding to the pit bull terrier, Japanese Tosa, Doga Argentino and Fila Braziliero.
When the new laws came in, the government estimated there were around 10,000 XL Bully dogs in England and Wales. However, this was a major underestimate, with the figure more like 57,000.
Based on FOI figures from 19 police forces in England and Wales, the BBC found that 1,991 suspected banned dogs were seized in the first months of 2024. That is up from 283 in the whole of 2023.
Meanwhile, figures showed that 818 dogs had been destroyed, more than double than in 2023.
More than half of the forces that responded to questions about their kennels said they were full or near capacity.
Chief Constable Mark Hobrough, the NPCC lead for dangerous dogs, said the cost of kennels and vet bills had risen from £4million to £25million, without taking into account added costs of training staff, buying extra vehicles and equipment and renting short-term kennels.
He said a ‘strong request’ was being put forward by the NPCC for the Government to provide more funding.
Since February, it has been a criminal offence to own an XL bully dog in England and Wales without an exemption certificate
Policing the ban has proved to be made more challenging because working out whether a dog is an XL Bully can require specialist training or external expertise, which means keeping them in kennels for longer.
Xl Bullies are described as large dogs ‘with a muscular body and blocky head, suggesting great strength and power for [their] size’.
Recalling her encounter with an XL Bully in June, Ms Willis told the BBC: ‘I just thought it was going to kill me,’ she said. ‘It was so powerful, it was literally hanging off my arm and no matter what, I just couldn’t get it off.’
She had been on a walk with her terrier, Duke, when a French bulldog attacked him. Then an XL Bully-type dog rushed out of a garden, crossed the road and mauled Ms Willis.
Ms Willis said her arm was ‘shredded’ and even asked her rescuers to call her husband to say ‘goodbye’ because she thought she was going to bleed to death.
It comes after the XL Bully ban was ruled lawful by the High Court despite campaigning owners’ claims that it was based on ‘unreliable’ material.
Judges have said that ministers had ‘sufficient evidence of an alarmingly high level of fatal attacks’ by the dog breed when launching the crackdown last year.
XL bully owner Sophie Coulthard and campaign group Don’t Ban Me, Licence Me pursued legal action against the Department for Environment and Rural Affairs over the large bulldog-type American breed being added to a banned list under the Dangerous Dogs Act.
Opponents argued that the ban was unlawful, insisting it was based on ‘unreliable’ material and also lacked a ‘proper’ analysis over its impact while including ‘vague’ standards that risked people unknowingly committing a criminal offence.
It comes amid a spate of high-profile attacks including this one captured on CCTV in Birmingham in September 2023
Earlier this month, a 12-year-old girl was left with ‘horrific’ injuries after being mauled by an XL Bully. Justin Allison’s (pictured) pet Rocco ran towards the girl before sinking its teeth into her arm which left bone and tendon exposed, a court heard
Last month, Farhat Ajaz has narrowly avoided jail after his crazed XL Bully savaged an 11-year-old girl and two men in the street in Birmingham
The horror was captured in video footage which shocked the nation, prompting then Home Secretary Suella Braverman to call on banning the breed
Jodie Fitzpatrick (pictured) was the first woman in Britain to be ordered to have her XL Bully destroyed
Ms Fitzpatrick had discovered Bleu (pictured) freezing and hungry when it was a six-week-old puppy
But in a new judgment at London’s High Court, Mrs Justice Lang has now dismissed most of the legal challenge over the ban.
The judge found that issues such as defining the right types of dog and the human impacts of euthanasia had been considered by Defra.
She ruled it was ‘not necessary’ to interrogate ‘each reported case of a dog attack or fatality’ ahead of the ban nor to delay the crackdown coming into force ‘until an official definition of the XL Bully was prepared’.
The judge said she had been shown data for 11 deaths between January 2020 and September last year.
Mrs Justice Lang added: ‘Suffice it to say that, even excluding those cases where there was legitimate doubt as to whether an XL Bully was involved, there was sufficient evidence of an alarmingly high level of fatal attacks by XL bullies or XL bullies crossbreeds to justify the defendant’s concerns.’
