They have been here a LOT longer than 7/8 years.
They've gone under the name 'XL Bully' for only a short time. Previous to that they were pitbulls, they were american bulldogs, they were Gull Terrs, Bully Kuttas, Banne Dogs and Alaunts..
They were big, powerful, 'bull and terrier' types that we have had for 100s of years in one flavour, size and 'brand' or another.
The shape has changed a bit over the years, but these are multigeneration crossbreeds of a handful of types... and until the last couple of years, they have NOT been killing people and dogs left right and centre.
Then we had lockdown. Then we had a HUGE increase in puppy prices - a nicely bred lurcher that would have cost me £250 or less pre pandemic went up to 2K, for pedigree dogs, dogs of a predictable type or 'ego' boosting types, that went to 3, 4, 5, 6K...
We also increased the divide between the wealthy and the poor. We increased the fear, the disrespect for our shit-shower of a government and for our laws.
The government during the pandemic saw no reason to do anything about the rapid rise in puppy prices (we did raise it), saw no reason to help out trainers and behaviourists, vets or any of the people who are usually involved in ethical breeding, training and handling...
We saw a HUGE rise in quick fix, aversive 'bully boy' training tactics being pushed on Tiktok and similar platforms.
We saw a HUGE rise in celebs and the like importing 'personal protection family pets'... ie Dobermans, Giant Schnauzers, Rotties, Malinois, Cane Corsos... trained to bring down bad guys at a single command...
Another massive rise in awful, abusive trainers promoting such training ideas with horrific methods, to Joe Average...
And a lack of socialisation and habituation.
Those horribly badly bred dogs, trained and raised with awful methods or just pure ignorance were adolescents at the time we started seeing the sharp rise in attacks and deaths.
No one listened again when trainers and behaviourists said 'there is a problem and its going to be a fucking massive one'... We tried to stop importing cropped dogs so we could deal with the illegal ear cropping, that goes hand in hand with breeding dangerous animals, and using horrific training methods, and is a front for money laundering... (and the illegal repro clinics!)...
We've tried to get various abusive training methods banned, we're STILL waiting on the electric shock collar ban and its only remote operated collars, not bark collars, fence collars, spray collars and no hint we're ever going to ban prong collars or choke collars (as france have done).
I could list you 20 behaviourists, veterinary behaviourists and trainers off the top of my head who said 2/3 years ago, that this was coming. Who said when we banned pitbulls, that this was a risk... this is not shock, brand new, omg what a mystery news, to a lot of us within the canine industry. Not at all.
If we could follow the cases of the dogs who have killed, and have all that case history, I guarantee you, the dogs behaviour WAS predictable - to an expert. Unfortunately, whilst most dog owners believe themselves to be experts, very very few are.