Police patting an XL bully

[Unsurprisedyetsurprised]

Well it’s finally happened! The local XL bully owner (who has never muzzled his dog, including today and walks it on an extendable line - despite it being aggressive to other dogs) encountered two police officers on his walk today along the seafront. Everyone in the smallish village knows him - he’s the only bloody one with that breed and, he’s proud of it (boasting loudly)

Shock and horror - the police said nothing, about it being unmuzzled and worse than that, they then patted the vicious little bastard and said how lovely it was!!

Anyone who knows anything about dogs - tbh even anyone who didn’t - could tell what this dog was. But did the police do anything? No. Instead they went on to bother the local (very harmless) homeless man who had been asleep on a bench nearby - asked him to move on! He’s been around for about ten years and is so completely harmless. But something actually illegal and a nuisance? No. Let’s pat it on the bloody head.

I’ve long had a low opinion of the police but this really took the biscuit!!

I simply cannot believe that I have just read this. Have you considered it part of your job, your professional responsibility to - at the very least - do some research yourself instead of waiting for a 'training session'?

This information is available for anyone to read, including police officers, on the official government website. Your lack of professional curiosity over what has been a huge media issue is truly astonishing.

Did you go and speak to the police when you saw this interaction?

I know that there are lies, damn lies, and statistics, but it would also be possible to deduce that with so many registered XL's compared to so few pit bulls in 1991, that XL's are actually less dangerous than pit bulls were. Or that pit bulls weren't dangerous at all.

As I said, my own view is that the combination of bad breeding and owners who have no clue how to operate a dog, are the main problem. Couple that with dog ownership per capita increasing, and the increasing number of people in the world (and hence the country), and it is easy to see why friction occurs.

TBH, it seems pretty obvious from the pitbull figures that breed bans have worked very well.

It looks like the benefits of banning XLs will be slower, because they were more popular, but the trend is clear. They’ll die out just like pitbulls.

I'm not sure I follow. My summary is:

1. Pit bulls were banned and yet there are more now than there were at the time of the ban.
2. Pit bulls attacks are zero despite there being more pit bulls now than before.
3. There are ten times as many XL's, but not ten times the amount of attacks when compared to pit bulls (there needs to be an adjustment per capita).

If the trend follows the same way, there will be more XL's in 30 years. They won't die out, just as pit bulls haven't.

The only thing that could be extrapolated is that owners were more careful after the ban which led to lower instances of incidents, but banning the breed certainly did not result in the breed dying out.

One of my neighbours is convinced the other neighbour has an XL bully and keeps reporting it. It's not, it's a Boxer/English Mastiff. Soppy bloody thing, looks at you like you hung the moon, anyone's for a bit of fuss.

But the trend for Pitbulls is that they are increasing in numbers, so how does it follow that the XLs would decrease if they followed the same trend?

I've been battling binary maths all day, and math to start with, is not my strong point. I think my brain might have slightly melted, but your math is not mathing to my poor brain.

1. is wrong: there are fewer pitbulls than at the time of the ban.
2. the remaining pitbulls must be muzzled and leashed.
3. the numbers of XL Bullies can be expected to decline, hopefully quickly.
4. the remaining XL Bullies must be muzzled and leashed.

It all seems to work quite well. Although I accept that we can expect further bans. But that’s in the hands of dog owners.

1. is correct. Check your facts. In 2013, so over ten years after the ban, there were 2,317 pitbulls registered with DEFRA. By your own stats, there were 3,079 in 2024.

Like I said, math is not my strong point, but I'm 99% certain that is an increase, not a decrease.

In 2022 the figure was 3,571. Facts, checks, whatever.

But that’s not what I was answering anyway. The pp said “Pit bulls were banned and yet there are more now than there were at the time of the ban.” That’s not true.

Eurgh, I symapthise, hate xl bullies. The ban isn't doing enough, they should've culled them. Can't wait for them to die off

You are a real peach, aren’t you?

Well I mean I'm not too fond of things with a keen interest in mauling children. Perhaps we have different values

Or perhaps we just apply rationality and common sense differently.

If a ban on pitbulls in 1991 was successful, there wouldn't be any here today.

That was my point. XL's won't die off any more then pit bulls have. And they'll just get replaced by some other frankenbreed.

Did I go up to speak to the two police officers that were patting a banned breed, and ask them why they weren't doing anything, when I know for certain that dog is aggressive?😂I'd be more likely to be arrested than the guy breaking the law!

As it is, I have lodged a complaint - both about the officers and the dog in question, so let's see what happens. I imagine, as usual, nothing.

Maybe they were taking the opportunity to assess the dog at close quarters without risking the wonders kicking off, @Unsurprisedyetsurprised. If they did remove the dog, it would be better to do that at the dog’s home, in a planned fashion, rather than in public and off-the-cuff.

I stand corrected. The exemption applications in 1991 were just under 5000, so there are now just over 1000 less pit bulls than there were in 1991, and the numbers are increasing.

So, banning is hardly a raging success.

i have a purebred staffie, so she's small and stocky. Only 14kg. She's a rescue and has been abused so has a slightly deformed face, tongue, tail and cigarette burns.

I was asked yesterday by a passerby if they could pet her. I said yes. She asked if she was a crossbreed and I said no, a staffie. She said she wasn't sure as she didn't quite look like one.

So, yes, dog breeds can easily be misidentified.

My previous dog was a crossbreed, 30kg, tall, broad chest. I had someone yell at me that I shouldn't have 'that pitbull in public, it needs to be destroyed'. Doggo was on lead, bumbling by my side and just looked like a spotty labrador.

I've also had police officers fuss and pet both my 'pitbull' and current 'crossbreed'.

So, don't jump to conclusions, OP.

“Vicious little bastard”

Are you always so terribly unpleasant?

@DinoLil Can you post the cigarette burns? Most of the time when people say that they're fighting scars.

Everyone asking how OP knows the breed – she says in her OP that the owner boasts openly about it being an XL Bully

Are you absolutely sure it's an XL bully? Let's hope you aren't wrongly accusing an innocent dog. My dog is probably mistaken for one by people who don't know the difference so I guess you need to just leave it up to the police

Why do people not read the OP properly. She knows it's a XL bully because he tells everyone!

It's there in black and white he’s the only bloody one with that breed and, he’s proud of it (boasting loudly)