Two fatal dog attacks in 48 hours

[ThisOldThang]

There have been two fatal dog attacks within 48 hours:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c80egr50vmmo

"Police are urgently hunting two dogs they believe were involved in killing a man found dead outside a home in Birmingham.

The man, aged 33, was found dead in the back garden of a home in Rubery on Wednesday.

Police said two dogs had been seized but they were hunting two more American bulldog types."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyn4yxm7jko

A man who tried to fight off an XL bully with a broom as it mauled his friend to death has said the dog "just turned on him".

David Daintree died after his pet attacked him at his home on Ashley Court in Accrington, Lancashire, at about 21:30 BST on Tuesday.

I think it's time for a cull of Bully XLs and similar breeds.

AIBU?

I HATE these dogs

HATE them.

There's a guy in my area that has TWO and TWICE they've gotten out of control and away from him and ran after cats.

I have small breeds and ALL the enjoyment I had from walking them is gone now because him constantly thinking he is going to come round the corner with these disgusting creatures and they might go after my small dogs.

I love dogs but I honestly want all XL Bullies to be euthanized

I am seeing more of the the breed in my local area. Worries me.

I stepped out of our house with my 8 year old when I didn’t realise a man with an XL bully was walking by.

The dog stopped dead at our drive and locked eyes on my daughter. The owner could not budge it.

I grabbed the hood of my daughters coat and swung her back into the house and shut door.

I am not usually dramatic but the look on the dog made me move totally instinctively and I was shaking afterwards.

The way the dog looked at my child honestly gave me a feeling of cold terror.

The dog was locked watching our door for over two minutes afterward, the owner was absolutely not in charge, could not move dog until dog allowed it.

Had made me check before walking out the house now.
These dogs are something else, no way in hell any human could stand a chance against that amount of muscle and that jaw.

I hope the community of today's one don't lock down and hide any others involved or the missing dogs.

I grew up in this area 30 years ago and I remember so many huge breeds not too dissimilar to XL's, half a brain cell owners and being close to being attacked several times.

There are lots of things that are dangerous / justifiably against the law that do not, nevertheless, keep me aaake at night.

Doesn’t make them OK though.

Whilst we cannot restrict them to killing just their owners, I agree they should be culled and other dogs muzzled.

I shudder every time I see one of these beasts posing with a child.

The one that lives in my road got loose and ran full tilt in to my house while I was putting the bins out. No muzzle. Totally out of control, would not come back to the owner when called, they chased it all over my house.

I was furious, they were laughing as it ran in to my house, then when I said it was out of control they started effing and blinding at me.

And the make dogs in our area are not castrated. I never see any other uncastrated breeds. Obviously planning to breed from them.

Further restrictions are pointless. They are the dog of choice of people who already treat the law as optional. Muzzling them in public fine - but so many attacks are in the home or garden.

Time for a cull.

That's terrifying. I'm so nervous now in parks and children's play areas with my DSs especially as our three year old is really curious about dogs and will toddle up. I'm teaching him to wait and I always intervene and make sure he doesn't run up. I don't want to give him a fear of all dogs but my fear of these dogs is definitely increasing the more I see them. The ones I've seen none of them are muzzled. Also it worries me being in Scotland that most of them are abandoned ones from dodgy owners in England that rushed to get rid of them up here rather than pay for a licence or muzzle them. Which again makes me question why. It is as someone else said like having a hyena as a pet, or a tiger.

I know this isn't the point of the thread but I feel for his daughter who is now commenting everywhere to let people know that it wasn't her dads dog, he was watching it for a friend. I know it doesn't really matter who the dog belonged to but for his daughter to keep seeing comments like "he had it coming because those dogs are dangerous" it must be adding to her grief. This isn't aimed at anyone on here btw but I thought I would post it anyway. I hope his friend and anyone else who owns one of these monsters get what they deserve tbh

I've a friend that gets so offended when stories like this come out. She defends the animal to the hilt.

Which I think is a huge part of the problem: whereas we used to put aggressive dogs to sleep and certainly not keep them around children or breed from them, too many people now seem to think that a dog being PTS because it’s bitten is akin to murder. Start a thread about a dog which has bitten (any breed) on MN and you’ll get tons of responses about how it isn’t ever the dog’s fault, the dog was probably just reactive or frightened or nervous or in pain or just didn’t like the look of the person it bit because they can read body language and negative energy dontchya know, and they need training and love and definitely not to be PTS.

I’m willing to be that almost every single one of the dogs which has mauled someone to death had bitten on many occasions previously, and yet would have been defended because reactive / anxious / bad vibes. As long as dogs which have behaved aggressively are kept alive to keep on doing it, we’ll have dog-related fatalities.

Exactly. There are few where I live, but other communities must be living in fear of them.

I had the same experience when taking my son out of the car. I picked him up and dumped him in the porch with the door closed.

I'm a 6'1" man and I've been eyed up as 'prey' by the shitty things.

Extremely unpopular thing to say and slightly tangential but.....this is connected to the wider culture of people taking their dogs absolutely bloody everywhere! Why on earth are people taking their dog to the corner shop or the supermarket?! Leave it at home!

I grew up with dogs. They were left at home when we went out for the day (they'd get plenty of exercise before and after). They were trained to stay at home and this was absolutely the norm amongst everyone I knew. Now people take their dogs everywhere as if they are children - shopping in town, to cafes etc. It has become ridiculous. Every gift shop has an extensive collection of crap for people who anthromorphise their dogs to buy. Every single holiday cottage now has to be dog friendly (and therefore stinking and grotty for everyone else).

If you want your lovely labradoodle to sit in a cafe, you have to accept the XL Bullies too. It has gone too far.

There was a thread a while ago where somebody claimed that her German Shepherd dog was randomly aggressive because it is such a good judge of character and could detect evil...

They're just bonkers.

Here's an image of a German Shepherd rooting out evil.

Ha yes I saw that one.

The thing is, any dog is capable of turning and killing someone.

But the difference between a GR attacking a small child and a XL Bully attacking a small child is 99% of the time, the GR is provoked into it - child tugs them, torments them, makes them miserable and the parents fail to adequately control their little child - whereas with the XL bully it's literally in their nature. And you stand more chance of getting a GR/Lab/Westie/Chi off you than you do an XL Bully.

They should have been culled as a breed the second their 'kill stats' got too high. And it's pretty awful that they haven't because the Govt. know full well that illegal breeding is still going on and they are doing nothing so these dog will continue to exist.

You can bet that he's sat round with his mate and they've all got involved in SM posts, saying that it's the owners, not the dogs and all dogs bite, chihuahuas are equally vicious. He would have been part of the problem.
Under the BBC link is a list of recent dog attacks. There's been another series of pets being killed, when the dogs have got out. I had a GS, it never got out, sieze the dogs because they obviously can't handle them to start with. I voted YABU because there hasn't previously been issues with Staffies or English bull terriers and they were generally owned by WC lads.

On balance, I would rather pass along a fear of these dogs to my child than complacency, given that he doesn't understand the risk he's at from them :( it's awful to even have to think this way. But if it's about finding the balance, I would err on the side of wanting him to be fearful of bully breeds.

OP saying they've locked eyes on him as a 6ft 1 man... yep, because you are prey to them. And if one of them wanted to kill you, they would. Size has no bearing on being able to fight off an animal that muscular with jaws like that and gameness bred into them, sadly.

@Oohmegrapes how would you define a vicious breed? How wealthy would the person have to be?

Extremely unpopular thing to say and slightly tangential but.....this is connected to the wider culture of people taking their dogs absolutely bloody everywhere!

Agreed. I saw some FB reel about how dogs are now allowed in Selfridges and how wonderful that is. I find going to Selfridges stressful: the smell of the perfume concessions is overwhelming, it’s full of people milling about, there are staff constantly approaching out of nowhere to offer help, it’s about three shades of electric light brighter than I ever want, and almost every time I end up there I feel a rising sense of panic. I can’t imagine how it must feel if you’ve no idea what’s going on, your face is barely a foot off the ground, you’re constantly seeing kicking feet flying towards you from people who can’t see you, and your olfactory senses are completely broken by everything you can smell. No wonder dogs lash out, when they’re in environments not designed for them, taken there by daft owners who’ve no idea about dog behaviour. Why on earth anyone thinks it’s a good idea, let alone “wonderful” for their dog to go shopping with them, is a complete mystery.

Having seen xl bullies in action. They move and cling onto people like no other. Large breeds ie GSDs,Rotties if inclined will bite differently and retreat, whereas footage for example of. Xl bullies seem to keep going and going until they have finally finished off their prey. Seen in the footage of the loose bully on rampage at fuel station grabbing a man and virtually climbing him to get him on the floor. This is after he has mauled a little girl earlier, terrifying. XL bullies seem wired up differently.

According to the full BBC article, the dogs for todays attack aren’t banned XL bullies

They are legal American bulldogs

The breed/type based law isn’t fully fit for purpose. These dogs fall outside of its provisions.
(As will the next breed of dog the shitty owners who like ‘hard’ dogs will turn to)

Have there been any dog attacks in Selfridges? There are always quite a few dogs in John Lewis in Cheltenham and I have not seen one who is not behaving impeccably. I'm hoping to get my new puppy arriving in October trained to that standard.

But most xl bullies wouldn’t hurt a fly 😳🙄

I adore dogs and have one - a gorgeous cocker spaniel breed from a line of clever and loving working cockers. We researched fully and understood what we were taking on. He’s part of the family. The dogs in the news are breed and bought for “protection” by idiots with small penises and no clue about the needs of the breed. Then they post pictures of the dog next to a baby “kissing” its face. Anyone who comments negatively gets a load of abuse.

I’ve seen several examples of dogs in busy shops and cafes lunging towards or biting a person or another dog: it’s a symptom of the wider change in attitude towards dogs, which doesn’t benefit dogs and often leads to bad behaviour. XL Bullies aren’t “evil”: they’re just dogs which have been badly bred, badly trained, and kept in conditions which aren’t conducive to good health; they’re just more likely to be lethal when they do snap, as any breed of badly bred and badly trained dog (and there are an ever increasing number of those) can when put in a situation it doesn’t like.