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?

Ban them in all council houses and make benefits contingent on not owning one, that’d get rid of a fair few.

I’m in Scotland and to be honest, haven’t fully looked into the ban (I no doubt will when we start seeing increased attacks up here due to how many XLs have been shipped up here) but what’s the exemption about? If a dog ticks the boxes for an XL, and isn’t a recognised breed of any other kind then how can it be exempt?

What’s the point of this if these owners can just move onto the next, almost identical, large muscled dog breed?

Poor boy.
Hope he gets better soon.
I'm sure we all on Mumsnet feel this and send him our best.

I think the point from @crumblingschools is that 'why would you own a dog that is predisposed to be a violent, aggressive killing machine.'

There's literally no reason for anyone to own one of those dogs. No one needs a living weapon in their house.

He's the best boy and much better behaved and trained than my two cockerpoos.

Bingo!

If you have to liken a dog to a gun, then you shouldn’t own that dog. It’s a certain type of person who picks this kind of dog, and frankly, I just don’t care about your opinion on it if you’re one of the owners.

@Itslegitimatesalvage I think the exemption is to acknowledge that people owned the dogs before the ban, and so if they say they'll meet certain requirements (like muzzling) they can keep the dog. It only applies to dogs owned before the ban was introduced. The alternative was to put all XL bullies down, and I suppose they thought that would cause too much whining from people who insist that theirs is a sweetheart.

I don't want to come across judgmental but personally I do find it strange when some people buy very big dogs when they have children.
The mouth on these dogs is huge....
A smaller dog is definitely easier to remove if attacks even the yapping snappy dogs.
It sometimes feels like the child is not given priority over the animals bought.
There are too many reports now of these dog attacking.

I’m a bit put out at this - I have a working springer spaniel who is docked and I am definitely not posh! Working dogs are docked so their tail doesn’t get injured when running through scrub and woodland. A friend of mine had an undocked spaniel who got caught in thorns and had to have his tail amputated.

people buy XL bullies because they want a huge threatening animal they can strut down the road with to cement their status as tough nut. There are so many other large breeds who don't have the unpredictable, potentially lethal temperament of an XL, so for someone to choose to live with an XL makes
me doubt their intelligence.

@todayshappening But they are all lovely, until they snap. All dogs can snap if they are hurt/frightened/ill. The difference is your's would kill or seriously harm you/someone else. I just don't understand at all. Do you have children?

In the last two weeks
One lady dead.
One lady in hospital in serious condition.
One child in hospital, serious condition.

WAY too big a risk IMHO. I adore dogs, but even my last dog snapped once, and she was bomb proof..or so I thought. She didn't harm, she just snarled and showed her teeth, to me. It was a real shock.

It really is I really do think our particular council don’t give a toss unfortunately police patrol my aunties area constantly for high crime rates and she’s told me they have driven straight passed un muzzled xls and haven’t even taken a second look, I think councils that are taking this seriously is unfortunately luck of the draw few and far between.

And because of the nature of her area it’s very cliché but no one will have the guts to ring the housing officers either as they are meant to keep complaints “anonymous” but they definitely don’t, I’ve advised her to ring 111 and constantly log it.

@Namechangenamechange321 I owned one 12 years ago before they became popular, he lived until he was 9 and was a great dog with an gentle temperament. He was enough to make me get another.
The one I have now comes from a top bloodline and that was important to me. A dog that costs alot of money is going to be trained, fed and looked after well by responsible owners. The ones involved in attacks are poorly bred with money over anything else in mind. They were bred with anything, with no interest in bettering the breed at all.

I'm in a low income working class area, and have only seen two XLs in the flesh, neither particularly close to home.

Other bull terriers are popular here, though - staffs and EBTs. They're always wearing firmly gripped non-flexi leads when I see them. One of the local EBTs has issues, so he wears a muzzle as a precaution (though he walks well on lead and I could get quite close and talk to his owner with no sign of him wanting to bite me).

These dogs aren't ones I would want to have (though I've always admired the EBTs nose lol), but I feel safe seeing them around as they are always under control.

How can it be a top bloodline when they are not an exact breed? It can still be a killing machine

It sometimes feels like the child is not given priority over the animals bought.

The sad truth is that for a substantial number of dog lovers their pet dog is more important than anyone else and everything else. Have a look at the dog lover threads on here. They’re weird and frightening at the same time.

My favourite is the inevitable “I prefer dogs to people”, “Dogs are better than people”. If you substitute the words ‘cars’, say, or ‘shoes’ or ‘handbags’ for ‘dogs’ you get the right mental image of how strange and unsettling that is.

@redboots765 what your saying doesn't make sense. Bully's aren't the only large/giant breed out there. Would you say the same thing on a post about Rottweilers, German shepherds etc? They could all do the same damage.

@todayshappening do all big breeds maul in the same way? Carry on until they have ripped the victim to bits

I wouldn't have a Rottweiler or a German Shepard around any children. The XL bully had jaws that are capable of such harm. They also have such an aggressive track record.

It's the implementation of the law. These dogs that are attacking now are not registered and already illegal.

I don't think a breed is inherently bad
It doesn't make sense to talk about dogs (or any other animals) as being inherently good or bad, they are animals and as such they are not capable of making moral choices.
I will say that these large powerful canine predators are inherently dangerous.
I had hoped that we could relax a bit, that the danger, the threat from these animals would significantly reduce after the ban, sadly it doesn't seem to be the case.

Ok, I'll look forward to seeing your name pop up on those breed threads.

All XL bullies need dragging into the streets and shot.

Absolutely agree. It's getting out of hand now. Why would anyone think these dogs are good family dogs is beyond me!

That has not always been the case.