To think we're about to see an influx of XL Bully attacks after a rehoming free for all?

[SeattleSpacePlane]

So I know the ban is about to come in. Plenty for it, many against it. Not trying to start a debate about that!

Yesterday someone on my FB shared a post from a woman who was offering to rehome an XL to save it before the ban came in. Someone commented with a group for rehoming XLs before it's too late and banned and I clicked on it for a look.

I was absolutely gobsmacked by the posts on the group. Hundreds of posts going back weeks of XLs needing new homes (I suppose expected) - but a VERY high and panicked volume of posts over the past few days, as the ban approaches.

Lots of pictures of dogs with !!URGENT!! rehoming requests. From people asking on behalf of their friend, because their HA just told them XLs are banned under their tenancy, for the XL they just found abandoned behind Tesco, because they bred an XL litter this year and a buyer has just dumped an 8 month old pup back with them. Lots of reasons. Incredibly sad for the dogs, none of this is of their making.

But it's the reaponses. Comments and comments from people offering to rehome an XL to save them. Highlights were 'willing to take one but must be good with children as I have a 5 year old'. 'I wish I could have both but I'm in a flat so one is my limit, please contact me'. 'I have an XL already who is brilliant with the kids, happy to add another poor baby to our pack'.

Dogs are currently being panic-rehomed all over the Country. People are offering their services to transport the XL from Devon to the family in Yorkshire who've agreed to take it. No home checks, no behavioural checks of the dogs, people aren't even meeting the dog they're agreeing to home. Lots and LOTS being shipped to Scotland in particular where there's no ban.

It's truly frightening the amount of people with young dc agreeing to blindly rehome an XL to save them. I wouldn't rehome a bloody Yorkie without meeting the dog first never mind an XL!

This is going to end in tragedy, surely?

AIBU to think the ban on privately rehoming them should have been immediate at point of announcement to prevent this madness? And also that, sadly, we're likely to be reading several tragic stories in the coming weeks about one of these panic-rehomed dogs turning?

I wish they had banned and cracked down on backyard breeding and stopped the sale of pups on sites like Pets4Homes and Gumtree.

I'd like to see really stiff prison terms for people who force their dogs to have multiple litters.

I can't bear the story about collie abused in that way, Karen. Such dear darling dogs.

You know, it's such a huge surprise that the majority of XL Bully owners can't be bothered with them anymore, now that it requires a bit of effort and application. Honestly, I'm shocked.

People are just dim with handling dogs too

Not an XL but I was on my horse, and a small young dog came running over. Dog sat in front of my horses hoof
It was a hot day and she had been kicking at flies, dog kept running behind her, grabbing her tail then sitting in front of her hoof
I shouted the owners numerous times, they came ambling across with no urgency at all, despite me shouting their dog could be killed if she kicked. No apology either

Very good horse stood like a rock and didn't even flinch at the flies or the dog swinging off her tail. It could have been so different

Imagining that was an XL bully.. terrifying how they had no control or concern

Completely agree- All online sites are bad news.
Puppy farms, kitten farms, all bad news for the animals being sold there.

If greeders didn’t have such a ready outlet for cheap ( free?) ads, it may make “ Getting rid” of the pups harder so maybe less bred.

Just today I heard of someone whose cat died- she went straight onto a crappy online site to buy an expensive kitten without looking into the health of the parents-
Pedigree cats can have inherited health conditions, just like dogs.
She wants a kitten TODAY.
Online is the worst place to buy a puppy or kitten, as so often a front for shoddy practices.

How many XL bullies were there in England and Wales before the ban was announced?

Google isn't returning a clear answer, but I'm assuming you have the info as you're saying the majority CBA

If it HAD been an XL Bully your horse very likely would have had severe injuries to the belly , chest and muzzle( Where they tend to attack first)

There are vids where XL pits have been kicked repeatedly in the head by Draught horse, and they just come back for more.
The skull of these XL’s is extremely thick and can withstand iron shod hooves and even bullets.

Glad your horse was ok.
What a good horse.

I was browsing my local gumtree earlier and there’s a XL bully ‘free to a good home’. Clearly the restrictions aren’t working! The advert was posted 45 mins ago.

Exactly. And yes she was incredible, thankfully she is used to the cats running around her and seemed to grasp not to move

Idiots gonna idiot.

They don't want their probably out of control mutt, so rather than have it painlessly euthanised, they are trying to pass the problem on - just like the one that killed little Jack Lees.

XL Bullies make up around 1% of the dog population in the UK

PDSA says there are about 11 million pet dogs in UK

Are you really sure about the 1% figure - that would mean as estimated UK population in whole of UK of 110,000 - knock off a bit to allow for ban being only E/W.

Probably leaves you with a figure substantially higher than the estimated population of labradors - one of the commonest pet dogs in UK - of around 60,000

It would happen with any dog once the money dries up.

This won’t be the last. I predict cane Corso next.

Well, Akitas and Malamutes got past it by the skin of their teeth.

This government will literally do anything but put legislation in place to stop the problem at its root cause.

Probably not far off course there... A skinny little dweeb was hanging onto one with all his might on a Bus back in the summer. {Edit...and it had bodged job mutilated ears}
He wanted an old lady to get off with her little dog so he could get past.

Pathetic men!

Do you have a sense of why they are resisting further legislation?

They ought to stop ALL unregulated breeding for starters, and regulated breeders should be strictly monitored so that bitches are treated well, and not overbred.

A friend worked for an inner city project and the amount of dogs bred for ''drug'' money is depressing.

The staff do all they can to try to help, but if the people refuse to spay bitches what can be done?...Bitches literally with the flesh melted away from feeding pups. Food can be donated, but is it used? or sold on.

Sadly the ''usual suspect'' types of dog as well.

Zero knowledge of basic worming or of inbreeding....just two dogs of the same breed getting together and the pups were a few hundred each.
Doesn't matter if pups had parents who were siblings or not.

This was pre-covid, but probably still going on.

Even middle class people were cashing in during covid- breeding cockawockadoodles for easy money.

I'm a fully paid up member of the spay brigade!

So the press is reporting that cane corsos and rottie puppy searches have gone up by 35% in last few days. Knew it wouldn't be long until another status breed would appear. I've grown up with rotties and at the height of their "status breed" in the 90s. They've avoided being a banned breed before and I pray they do again.

If they disproportionately attack people or animals of course they should be added to the banned list. These are huge, powerful dogs.

I’ll repeat my point from upthread: there is no justification for owning a dog capable of killing an adult.

TBH I’m dismayed that steps haven’t been taken already to protect the public against powerful dogs more generally.

The argument is really an animal version of the law against guns. You might be a responsible gun owner but that’s not the point. As a matter of social policy access to guns should be very tightly restricted. So should access to monster dogs.

Because fixing the root cause - unrestricted breeding - is really hard and costly, but banning a single breed makes great, easy headlines.

And works.

Does it, really? Because none of the bans so far have actually made any difference, and the existence of this thread also points to its ineffectiveness.

And, of course, because the definition of "breed" in the law has absolutely nothing to do with the actual breed (ie the genetic heritage of the dog), it's actually nothing of the sort. It's just "A dog that looks kinda like this" - and results in lots of false positives and false negatives, both of which are harmful.

What do you think is more effective? The cheap, easy solution which gives the illusion of effectiveness and can easily be gamed, or preventing those dogs from existing in the first place thus protecting both the human population and the welfare of the canine population at the same time?

If you think I'm wrong, then by all means show me evidence that BSL is effective. 'cos, y'know, every non-politician from both sides of the argument who's ever looked at it says it's completely unfit for purpose.

If its too difficult to tell them apart just have a height and weight and jaw strength law and pts any dog that is over any of the 3 measures.

These owners are scum. Both the ones selling on / putting on fb and the ones applying for the exemptions as if it us ever ok to own one. There should be no exceptions, how long until 2 or more children are killed at home because the muzzle law is only in public? Most of the killings would have still happened anyway as they were in their own home / garden or escaped so would not be muzzled under the new law. It is actually awful.

Instead of waiting passively for the next wave of attacks by another breed - whatever that will be - I feel they should just require all dogs to be wearing muzzles in certain areas like they do in Germany. I can’t remember where exactly but I think on public transport, in city centres and in coffee shops etc they need to be muzzled and leads have to be of a certain length ie. Not too long. Additionally they can only get on certain carriages in trains and there are other restrictions.
Germany is seen as a very dog friendly place but they manage the risk through taking preventative measures.

Someone let their jack Russell terrier roam around the train I was on including in my seat area. I dropped my water by accident and without thinking I leaned in for it and the dog moved towards it as well. Thankfully it didn’t go for the water bottle in the end, but it easily could have and I could’ve been accidentally bitten. Yes it wouldn’t have done anywhere near the damage of an XL bully but a bite from any dog would be a horrific experience mentally and cuts can get infected.

While technically it was on a leash it was one of those long ones and she was letting the dog roam out of eyeshot eg, I was in the seat directly behind her so she couldn’t see what her dog was doing. I did move in the end but I wasn’t aware the dog was there when I sat down. Annoyingly she didn’t move her dog out the aisle when I tried to get past as well. I had to ask her to move it. No doubt if I’d have tripped over it I’d have got the blame of it.

I agree with the gun analogy. Too many irresponsible owners.

Some people on here say all the time that breed bans haven’t worked at all. I find that strange. It’s obviously untrue as pitbulls, Tosas etc are neither seen nor are reported as attacking people.

If the argument is that other breeds replace the banned ones the law should simply extend to ban further breeds. If the legislators don’t hang around a ban can be in operation in a few months. If we reach a point where large dogs have to banned, or maybe subject to muzzling in public, by reference to weight/height/jaw strength etc so be it.

Anyone sparing a thought for the good XL bully owners?

One of my dog's best friends is a young XL bully bitch, a really friendly adorable lump. Her owner, a very gentle Polish lady, is in bits, and is now trying to train her pup to wear a muzzle (with little success so far). She will be applying for the exemption as soon as she is able because Mimi is a member of her family. Can you imagine if one of your loved ones' very existence were abruptly outlawed on some vacuous Tory whim? But she doesn't know how her dog is going to be able to keep walking and socialising normally.

I and another dog owner in our group have offered our back gardens to her pup for offlead visits /playdates, but that's not much (my garden is less than 100ft long, my other friend's is half that). A local farmer has just announced that he is keeping one secure field available solely so that XL bullies can get some offlead exercise. That warmed my heart. I'm hoping more kindness like this will be shown to responsible and loving bully owners.

Anyone sparing a thought for the good XL bully owners?

I'll save my thoughts for Ian Price and the other victims of XL Bullies, and their families, rather than the owner of some badly trained lump that can't even be pursuaded to wear a muzzle.

Greyhounds manage and their owners don't whine endlessly about that.