Something needs to be done about unleashed pitbulls/ XL bullys

[TheyareEverywhere]

We've just moved to a new area which seemed nice and a good place to raise the kids.

After living here for just a week I've had two encounters with one of those big, bulky pitbull / XL bully type dogs off lead with the type of owner you'd expect to have them - young, unable to control them, the sort who use the dog as a penis extention to intimidate people and train the dogs to latch onto things at the park.

DP got chatting to a man at the shop and apparently they belong to drug dealers from the other block down the road. Lovely.

I'm scared of those dogs and won't pretend I'm not. I know what they can, and do, do to people / kids. My DD is equally as scared of them after having one growl and bark at her at the park.

Surely something should be done about people like this, fines for having them off lead on public streets? I don't know. All I know is they're frightening and shit to live amongst 😔

AIB unreasonable?

So we shouldn't ban anything caused by us? That's super illogical. Nothing would be illegal in that case

@Suzi888

But who caused the problem? We did.

Absolutely we did.

But why does that change the fact this issue needs to be dealt with?

Why should the outcome of essentially a risk assessment protecting people's safety be affected by it being caused by humans or by nature? The risks are the same.

@TheyAreMyBhunasPete Your argument is illogical. We can’t ban everything and we won’t.

Boerbels do kill- there’s a call for a ban in other countries. There isn’t here because idiots don’t own them.

Nothing is logical when it comes to the beloved mutts.

I'll reiterate. Nobody is entitled to keep lions, tigers, elephants or crocodiles as pets - unless in a safari park - because they're dangerous. Duh, it's not rocket science.

Please point me to the trail of bodies that chihuahuas are leaving behind lately?

@monsteramunch because it’s US. We are the problem. What’s going to be done to stop people breeding the next killing machine.
Unless you address the cause you don’t solve the problem.

Yep, probably anthropomorphising! But I genuinely are a lot more cautious with the chihuahuas, the dachshunds (sp) , the poms, and the spitzes, than the big dogs.

I think if you treat dogs as dogs, and you get a breed you can genuinely understand and control, then no breed is a bad breed. The problem is that far too many dogs are treated as human (and if a person has a badly brought up child, guaranteed their dog will be even more so), are not understood, are not trained or worked, and are treated as fashion accessories (be it penis extension or armbag bling), and this creates neurotic, badly controlled, badly behaved animals. With overly entitled owners. (Add the puppy farming that is totally out of control, and it's all over, Rover.)

Meatheads can't be educated, they don't have a high enough IQ, which is why guns are banned here. The meatheads needs as much control and supervision as their adorable doggies.

“So we shouldn't ban anything caused by us? That's super illogical. Nothing would be illegal in that case”

@TheyAreMyBhunasPete shouldn’t we address the problem itself?

Humans! But we don’t want to take responsibility do we. Nope. So yeah let’s ban xl bullies and then when the next breed is introduced we can ban that, then ban the next. 🤦🏼‍♀️Sounds like a plan.

No, we ban certain things that are becoming an increasing risk to the general public. Not everything. Xl bully's are. Sure, fight the cause. But banning the breed makes it easier to prevent attacks from dogs who haven't attacked before. They give the police more powers to remove, preventing deaths and life changing injuries.

Other countries aren't the UK. What's the point in bringing in laws that won't change anything here because they aren't an issue?

I say let the idiot owners cancel each other out.

I was on a walk a couple of weeks ago and passed two guys with two powerful large sized off lead dogs (mastiff/bulldog types). One of them bumped against me as I was walking away, but they generally left me alone and went back to their owners when called. They were snarling at each other trying to take possession of the ball, so didn't exactly come across as helpless little pups.

Anyway, I got a couple of hundred yards past them round the corner, and who should I see but another idiot owner who I see on a regular basis. She has a large, seemingly uncontrollable grey dog which she walks off lead (despite being given a talking too by people and kids it runs up to and scares and encounters it has with other dogs).

Anyway, it doesn't take some sort of predictive genius to figure out what happened next. A few minutes later there was shouting, screaming, and a whole load of barking. I didn't stop to see, but this went on until I was out of earshot.

Next time I saw idiot dog owner #2 the grey dog had a bandaged leg and was on a lead - I haven't seen it off lead since. I haven't seen idiot dog owners #1 again because I think they walk their dogs later and I get up early (because normally the owners of large unexercised status dogs are too lazy to get up and walk them early in the morning, so walking early in the morning is a good way to avoid them).

Who has said we should ban them and do absolutely nothing else?

Nobody that I can see.

I think we should ban certain breeds and have far more stringent punishment for breeders and owners of those breeds who put people at risk.

It's not a one or the other thing. The issue can be tackled in a number of ways simultaneously.

I'm not currently seeing that owners of any type of dog are intelligent or commited enough to bother training them. I saw a lady being dragged onto the main road by her border collie the other day. A man on our estate is dominated by his German Shepherd. Others are trying to walk their poo crosses, but they don't walk to heel and are chaotic and all over the place. People can't get their shit together and train these pets. Some might, but the ones I see are just hot messes of lunging, tangled leads, pulling and barking at other dogs etc.

Exactly! Lions were legal to own by your average joe not too long ago. "But but but, we can't ban everything!!!!!" Nope, just the animals that can pull the limbs off a fully grown adult in minutes.

What's even more remarkable is that there have been no fatalities in the last 40+ years by Labs, Spaniels, poodles, greyhounds etc. despite them being the most popular pets. There are millions of them.

American/XL Bullies make up for less than 1% of pet dogs in the UK, yet they're responsible for more than 50% of fatalities, out of 1000's of different breeds/cross breeds. Surely we have to accept that actually, it is the breed.

I agree, these dogs are terrifying, they are dangerous and Powerful predators we should not have to encounter them in urban areas.

I agree op. They should all be rounded up and destroyed.

The Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 was doomed to fail but IMO there is NO place in society for dogs like this. They ARE penis extensions. They are not suitable or necessary to have as pets.

Xl bullys/American Bullys ARE pitbull/pitbull descendants.

This latter information is easy to confirm as the pondlife that breed them are proud of the fact they have skirted round a weak system and freely bred an abundance of pit bull types and NOTHING has been done about it. Their reward for their success? Cash and countless people and animals (often their own children) mauled by their creations. Oh how proud they must be. And how utterly pathetic is this country for letting it happen.

@monsteramunch lots of people on this thread say ban them. @TheyAreMyBhunasPete
Because breeds like the Boerbel can and do kill.

The only reason you probably don’t see it in the U.K. is because there are far less. There aren’t many breeders for a start- the dogs are expensive just as the xl bully used to be until we came along and changed that.

Our local rescue is full of bully breeds- they wouldn’t rehome them if they were a bite risk. These dogs are handled, to within an inch of their lives. I maintain, this is a human issue. We created it. Now we want ti destroy it because it’s easier. We won’t address the problem, won’t learn from it, we’ll just nuke it. Until next time.

”I think we should ban certain breeds and have far more stringent punishment for breeders and owners of those breeds who put people at risk.” I agree, there should be a universal ban on breeding any dog or cat full stop, too many are in shelters. Solve the problem.

I agree owners should be punished, but I think it’s probably I workable in reality.

Of course it's the breed. I'd definitely rather take on a dachshund Vs a bully type.

I'd take on a domestic cat over a puma as well even though a domestic cat can inflict an unpleasant bite which can get infected very easily.

I agree with that. Ban the breeding. That doesn't help the issue for the next 10+ years though. The short term issue (the current xl bully's) needs to be addressed too. And banning laws make it easier for police to remove these dogs BEFORE Gladys next door has her insides removed

We own a Rottweiler whom we dearly love but if means ridding the country of bullies/xl bullies/boerbels etc etc etc means Rotties/Shepherds, maybe anything over 10/15kg to protect smaller animals and people so be it.

People clearly can't be trusted to be sensible and not breed dangerous animals so we'll all have to pay the price 😔

A PP is right. Some of the arguments on here are directly equivalent to the arguments used by the NRA in America:

"You can't ban everything dangerous"
No reason we can't start with this

"Criminals won't obey the law"
Why do we bother having laws against murder and rape? We could just abolish all laws and let people do whatever they want - at least no laws would be broken, right?

"X doesn't kill people, people with X kill people"
Well on the basis that we can't really outlaw humanity (though putting down drug dealers does have its attractions), we should create laws that prevent people being able to own X.

I get how you feel. I used to work in a boarding kennels who had a contract with police and social services. There was a dog who had been taken from his owner because he had been reported to be a pit bull. He was lovely but one day he managed to get hold of a rabbit on a walk. He would not let it go. I wouldn't want to imagine what it would have been if this was a person he grabbed hold of.

I love dogs but ive never understood the no bad dog just bad owners. It's not that the dog is evil, it's the damage they can do. They could be ill and snap you never know

So we don't see it in the UK. What's the point of bringing in the law then? It's not currently a threat.

And yes of course they only remove dogs if they aren't a threat. Until they suddenly are. Rescue bullys have also been responsible for deaths

Another fatality, seems like we're at the level of around two or three a week now 😔