"We should have a dangerous dogs act, we do need that, but a banned list doesn't work," he said. The current law, he says, doesn't work for anyone on either side of the debate. He says a register of all dog breeds would be the only way to know for certain if one type of dog is causing more injuries. Banning a full breed because of what some have done is not right," says Mr Riley. "Every single breed of dog has the good, the bad and the ugly. Mr Riley says there are currently 3,500 dogs on the exemption register. Many of these dogs, Mr Riley says, had not bit or injured anyone, but were destroyed purely because of their breed.Ī dog can be given an exemption under the Dangerous Dogs Act - if the owner can prove to a court it is not dangerous. Often, they don't find out their dog has been killed until weeks later. Some of those supported by the group have had their dogs seized and destroyed - in one instance, set on fire - without the owner's consent. The dog was eventually granted an exemption, but he now supports other owners who are facing the destruction of their pets. Mark Riley found Rocky's Army after a friend's pit bull was seized under the Dangerous Dogs Act. The rise of illegal ear-cropping in the UK "They were ripped to shreds and others given injuries they can never really recover from." "In one week in July this year, there was one dog killed every day by an American bully," says Dr Lawrence. He says if a ban is not brought in "more children will die, more people will be maimed and more dogs will die".ĭogs are one of the biggest victims of the XL bully. "It is not about size, it is not about jaw strength, it is about breeding and what the dog has been bred to do." While some critics say breed-specific-legislation doesn't work, Dr Newport says: "You can have a great dane that is huge, 80kg, but you can't find a single example of one that has killed anyone in the UK. "I don't blame the dogs any more than I blame a pointer for pointing at stuff, it is just what they were meant to do," the law lecturer says, explaining how the dogs had been bred for fighting, and then repeatedly inbred over 30 years.ĭuring his research, he found one dog that had the same grandfather four times over - more inbred than if its parents had been siblings. Ms Connolly says she has also seen "dogs of all breeds, shapes and sizes in court, some of whom have caused terrible injuries".ĭr Lawrence Newport has been tracking the alarming rise in fatal attacks by XL bullys - and says the dogs are "uniquely dangerous". The result, she says, would mean expensive arguments in court to even decide if a dog fell under the category of American XL bully in the first place. So it is compared and the police make a decision as to whether that dog has a substantial number of the characteristics of a pit bull terrier." "The dog is measured, proportioned, how much bigger is its head than its chest, what does its tail look like? And subjective things like springy gait. "There are 60-odd points of what a pit bull terrier should look like," says Ms Connolly. If a police officer suspects a dog may be a terrier, it is seized and compared to the American Dog Breeder Association Standard. She says it is similar to pit bull terriers, which are also not a defined breed in law. Ms Connolly said: "It is not recognised as a breed in this country and therefore you cannot simply write the words 'XL bully' at the end of the current dangerous dogs list." XL bully, a variation of the pit bull, was first seen in the 1990s as breeders sought to create a "bigger and stronger" version.īut they have no specific DNA markers, making them difficult to ban outright.
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