XL bully owner savaged in garden by dog criticises ban

Figures obtained show more than 23,000 dog attacks across England and Wales despite last year’s ban, writes Alex Ross

- Alex Ross

An XL bully owner mauled by a dog in her garden has hit out at a year-old ban on the breed after figures obtained by The Independent showed there were at least 23,000 reported dog attacks in the 12 months since it began.

It became illegal to own an XL bully, the largest type of American bully dog, without an exemption certificate from 1 February last year after former prime minister Rishi Sunak declared the breed a danger to communities.

The move came after a string of dog attacks but was criticised by charities, which said a ban on the breed was unfair to responsible XL bully owners and their pets, with at least 848 euthanised last year.

A year on from the ban, figures obtained exclusively from freedom of information (FOI) requests to 32 police forces in England and Wales show there were 23,064 reported dog attacks over the 12 months to 31 January this year.

The real figure will be higher, with three forces - West Midlands, Sussex and Greater Manchester - providing data for only 11 months of the latest 12-month period. The number, which is the equivalent of more than 60 attacks a day, is an increase on the year before and well up on the 14,212 attacks recorded five years ago.

The slight rise could be partly down to an update in Crown Prosecution Service guidance last year that said dog-on-dog attacks could potentially be included for court prosecutions, although there has been no change in law on it.

Police chiefs warned in January that the ban would be no “overnight fix”. Last May, mother Angeline Mahal was killed by one of her XL bully dogs in Hornchurch, while the previous month, Wayne Stevens was killed by his brother’s cane corso cross in Derby.

In February of this year, 19-year-old Morgan Dorsett died after being attacked by an XL bully in Bristol.