XL Bully attack | 8 year old boy seriously injured

[ThisOldThang]

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/schoolboy-8-seriously-injured-after-28610020

"A schoolboy is in a serious condition in hospital after being mauled by what is believed to be an XL bully.

Merseyside Police were called to Wadham Road in Bootle just after 5.20pm on Saturday following reports a dog had bitten an eight-year-old boy to the head in the communal area of flats nearby.

The boy was rushed to hospital with serious head injuries and required emergency surgery. He remains in hospital in a serious but stable condition."

IMHO the ban doesn't go anywhere near far enough and all XL Bullys need to be put to sleep.

AIBU?

Wankers. Walkers they are not. Except without a lead in a high Street. Not enough showing off potential to actually walk your dog

But these things are soppy, soft and wouldn't hurt a fly! They're nanny dogs, fur babies, the bestest boys ever! They want to lick you to death and not rip your throat out! It's the owners' fault, it's the deed not the breed. And what about chihuahuas?

(Just preparing the bingo card for when the apologists for these beasts turn up and try to defend their existence).

Poor wee lad.

I knew two XL Bully owners at my previous work. Both were women with criminal records (without going into too much detail, our work involved reform programmes).

They lived in what they described as "pro crime" areas, and wanted the dogs for protection. Thing is, they both had kids, and both described themselves as badly off, and both worked long hours out of the house.

Such huge, hungry dogs would be a bad idea even if they weren't savage

All dogs a toddler cannot beat in a fight can get in grave.

I love dogs, but agree that there's no need for these XL Bullies to exist and they should all be destroyed.

That poor little boy.

XL bullies should be properly banned but your comment is very silly.

Fucking hell!

Again!

Every single one of these dogs need to be PTS.

Say what you like, but the headline is never

"child savaged by labrador"

"Man mauled by Border Collie"

"Woman attacked by Wolfhound"

There is something in XL Bullies/Pitts that makes them basically evil.

How much longer is this going to be allowed to go on?

Exactly. If bad owners are the problem why are we relying on these bad owners to muzzle their dogs and put them on a lead in public (they won't bother). And making them get insurance is fucking pointless scant consolation if you or your loved one are emailed or killed by one.

They're not going to get insurance either.

That may already be illegal

The number of fatal dog attacks in the last two years or so is awful, and the number of fit adults killed by them horrifying. The boy was lucky to escape alive.

I have to agree with this too. The statistics speak for themselves. Also there will be parents who allow their children to visit other kids houses and may not know the other child's family has one of these dogs. There is no protection for a child in this scenario as they don't have to be muzzled in the home.

They need to get rid of all XL bully’s and create strong dog laws or licences as they will just replace the bully’s with other big dogs so maybe ban them all so they are no longer breed in this country and just have a list of ‘safe dogs’ that are allowed to be bred and others like police dogs have a special license like gun laws etc

Immature.

I’ve always believed it’s the owner not the breed, and I still think in the case of staffies, rotties in the 90s (I recall reading that there was an influx of aggressive rotties due to using an aggressive dog to breed lots of litters as he was conformationally outstanding) that the attacks were mostly down to poor training and socialisation, from owners looking for a status symbol.

XL bullies sadly have the same owners who don’t give a shit about socialising and training, but they are a Frankenstein’s monster of a dog, developed to be aggressive with no real
useful role. For that reason, very sadly, I think this is one breed that should be eradicated.

I agree. I can't understand why people would not prefer a smaller friendly dog in the first place. Those enormous dogs need to be walked miles and miles every day and I suspect many of them are shut up and not exercised enough.

Does anyone know how prevalent the breed is in other countries and if there has been deaths there? Googling only brings up UK stories

This is awful. Poor kid. I hope he will be Ok.

Looking at the circumstances I’d go a step further and think all HAs and responsible landlords need to start considering if they should stop allowing people to own any sort of dogs - especially dogs like that - in flat buildings?

I feel they’re kind of forcing people to share their living space with someone else’s pet who is very often going to cause issues. And a lot of dogs need to go outside regularly and so many modern owners can’t be bothered with that , so you get poorly trained dogs who have been stuck in all day tearing through communal areas when they are allowed out .

There’s only a handful of dogs in my building, and yet one of them has jumped up and scratched me as the owner didn’t believe in putting a leash on her dog unless she’s “outside”. I tried explaining to her that the communal area should be considered “outside” and it’s not the same as what she allows her dog to do within her individual flat but she was a bit dim unfortunately so I just had to make an official report.

the following week another residents dog pissed in the lift but thankfully was identified on CCTV, so the owner got spoken to and I was told then all dog owners got read the riot act about leashing their dogs and cleaning up after dogs.

The previous flat I lived in I was always getting emails about how owners weren’t cleaning up after the dogs in the rooftop garden. They should be cleaning up after their dogs but I also feel it’s gross and unfair they’re letting their dogs toilet on the shared garden anyway? I lived there for 18 months and totally avoid the rooftop garden which is sad but I just couldn’t be bothered going up to a literally shitty urine smelling place!

I also had one of those intimidating terrier type (sorry can’t remember the name of the breed) dogs lunge at me one two occasions in that flat. Had I been slightly closer to the dog it would have got me as the (female) owner wasn’t fully able to restrain it.

For the sake of a harmonious, safe environment as well as for the sake of a dog I think dogs should be for people who have access to private gardens.

This is horrific and my thoughts are with the family.

This also shows that breed specific legislation does not work. The people who have these dogs don’t care about the law. You can change the law to say they all have to be destroyed. Doesn’t mean they will hand their dogs over.

i have just had a GSD lunge and me and my dogs. Ban them too? What about my dogs? (They are bigger than aGSD.)

Make breeders all face proper licensing. Potential puppy owners all take training and pass a basic test. Then make them commit to training and getting insurance. Police spot checks if needed.

Or we could tackle the anti social behaviour in this country. Dogs. Knife crime. This isn’t about a single death. Tragic though it is.

Sorry mum. But why not ? If someone insists on keeping a creature at the end of a bit of string at least make it one that poses no danger to any human.

Report it to police.

I’m not sure how much truth is in this but I keep hearing about this dog Kimbo and how many dogs in the UK are related. Worrying if true.

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/killer-kimbo-xl-bully-half-of-uk-pets-descended-one-us-dog/

I think you have to have a look at what people care about who keep these animals and the demographic.

In order to keep one, you must have appropriate secure premises, and most housing will be unsuitable ie average flat, house, and actual cage is needed.

Keeping one in social housing should be a violation of a tenancy meaning immediate eviction on the grounds of public safety.

The Cane Corso will likely come under XL bully anyway if it meets the measurements(most do). They are not a recognised breed in the UK. Decent owners should have exempted them. But they won’t have done.

I read Spanish as well as English - lots of coverage in their press about the ban. They all state approximately 100k XL bullies in England (or UK, they tend to use Great Britain/UK when they actually mean England or vice versa) but only 10k in Spain, out of a human population around 50 million.