Banned dog breeds in the UK

[DerektheGoose]

Where I live there are a few people with Pit Bull terriers ie they openly admit they are pure Pit Bull and cost thousands of pounds. Are they no longer banned then?

So every dog above 25-30kg should be banned in the UK?

So every dog above 25-30kg should be banned in the UK

No, I don't believe any breed should be banned actually, but I do think owners need to be sensible and realistic when it comes to having breeds like this around children.

Those dogs are pure muscle. The reason they are dangerous is not their breed, but their sheer strength. How on earth could you pull one of those dogs off your child, or get it off you if it knocked you to the floor and bit you?

It is your responsibility as a dog owner to widen your knowledge on the breed you are buying. Contrary to other bully types, American bullies are not bred to fight but to be family dogs. Original breeders wanted to keep the look of the “pitbull” but completely changed the temperament of the dogs by introducing American staffs, English and American bulldogs in to the DNA. They absolutely do not display dog aggression when socialised and raised correctly. The dogs are highly intelligent and have extremely high levels of obedience. Research the purpose of the xl breed…. To be good family dogs!

So yes, it is massively unfair that the entire breed gets labelled dangerous because I know this isn’t true. My dogs are more than amazing with my children, strangers and other dogs.

If I couldn’t as an owner handle the strength of an XL I wouldn’t have bought them. You have to be accountable as an owner.

@Highen I never said they were aggressive as a breed.

But ALL dogs can bite and attack, from
Chihuahuas to Labradors to XL bullies. The fact that they're bred as family dogs is all well and good but that doesn't mean they'll never bite or become aggressive.

Personally I think it's utterly daft to ha be s breed with that level of strength and muscle around a child. Other dogs may weigh the same but they don't gave their level of muscle that XL bullies have.

The prices of American Bullies have also dragged in dodgy types. I've just found some for sale for £14,000. No lie.

No normal person has £14k laying around for a dog. Unfortunately these high prices will drag in two types of people - dodgy dealers using them for money laundering, and people who are short of cash thinking they can make a few bob selling these dogs, more than they would make working minimum wage. I believe that's why one of the dogs who attacked a child was bought - to be a stud dog :(

I have no idea how to fix idiot humans using dogs as profit making macho machines.

I think all large Pitbull-type dogs should be banned. Even if they're not more aggressive or likely to bite, the point is that if they do, their bite is more likely to do serious harm. Why anyone would have them around children is beyond me.

I’m in Liverpool and there’s loads here, nothing gets done about it. There’s Twitter pages with pitbull breeders advertising studs and puppies, they’re definitely pure pit bulls with parents imported from famous lines from Ireland, Finland and America. Every now and then the police will do a massive raid if there’s been an attack on a child. I know after the killing of little Ellie, 56 pit bulls were seized off a single estate by me. I recently saw a ‘farmers boy bull terrier’ advertised on pets for homes, which means it’s a literal fighting pitbull from the Irish farmers boys bloodlines.

I also know of a dogo Argentino breeder in Grimsby. He advertises his puppies on pets for homes as mastiffs. When you click on the photos there’s always a picture of the Argentinian flag in the background

My Golden Retriever could probably kill me if he wanted to ( and if he managed to stay awake long enough).
Generally speaking dangerous dogs are badly bred, badly trained and owned by idiots. Whenever a child is killed or injured by a dog there is almost a check list you could write
Bought off some bloke in the pub/online
One parent family or chaotic family background
Dog has a macho name
They havent owned it long
Social housing in a ropey area

Of course no one or more thing in this list makes people more likely to have a dangerous dog but when it DOES happen you just know its probably not going to be a Labrador from a Naice Home Counties family.

Pitbulls are purebred dogs. You’re confusing this with the uk law where pitbull ‘types’ are banned

it gets more sinister when in our area we are seeing bitches of these valuable bully breeds imported from Europe, bred by AI, kept by an agent posing as a pet owning family, who only get paid on safe delivery of puppies (and refuse to pay for the caesareans they often need). It’s the new face of puppy farming unfortunately.

And yes, any breed of dog can bite and snap (apparently the most common dog breed to bite is the dachshund) but most bite as a repellant to something/someone they don’t like, to make it go away. The vast majority of fatal dog attacks seem to be these bully breeds. The RSPCA, BVA and others campaign for a “deed not breed” approach to dangerous dogs act reform, but I wonder if removing the ban would ultimately result in more dogs with dangerous potential becoming commonplace in this country, particularly with the rise in imported dogs.

I totally agree @Hoppinggreen

You never see these macho types with golden retrievers, labs, beagles or spaniels funnily enough

I think this is definitely true. Pit bulls were only starting to be considered dangerous from the 1980’s. In the 19th century people were terrified of bloodhounds as they were what the police used to catch criminals. Then it was Doberman’s and Alsatian’s as they were used as war dogs. Then it was Rottweilers and huskies. And now it’s bull breeds. Whatever dog is the current popular status dog is going to be bought and used by arseholes who will make them live up to the reputation that they don’t deserve.

It's not just reputation though, is it? They are very strong dogs and their bites are genuinely more dangerous.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_dog_attacks_in_the_United_Kingdom

Yup, exactly @Ihatethenewlook and these arseholes don't care about BSL or any laws. The only way to get them is for them to be reported and dragged into court, and the dogs seized.

There definitely needs to be something done with the "canine fertility clinic" epidemic - that the British Veterinary Association is wanting to get regulated. To stop stuff like this:
www.vettimes.co.uk/news/no-vets-at-restricted-fertility-procedures/
There was a story in the press a while ago with a convicted drug dealer, now running one of these "clinics" instead. Sigh.

It's all so dark and seedy when you start looking into it.

Banning a dog breed because it bites doesn't fix the problem though. The idiots who don't train the dog are the problem. These are people who don't give a hoot about laws, or are completely naïve to the law. Banning these four dog breeds in the UK hasn't stop dogs attacking people.

Idiots owning dogs for macho purposes, even when they do train, "training" them to guard or fight rather than be good dog citizens, and then letting their kids or friend's kids hang around them unsupervised is the problem. We need to target the people, not the dogs.

My collie has never once nipped in his life and I can stop him 'herding' with one word.

These threads always go the same way. Owners of labs / cute fluffy white things chucking out accusations about the TYPE and 'BREED' of the people themselves that have these dogs in their council estates. One bully owner comes on here and is roundly dismissed. If you don't invite these dog owners to be part of the conversation, you're just creating an echo chamber and nothing gets done except a load of moaning and fantasising and ends up in a dead end. Again.

This with bells on. I haven't had a banned breed, but staffies are my favourite dogs. I'd have another in a heartbeat.

No, it is caused by reputation. I’ve just looked out of interest and in the 1900’s bloodhounds had the typical ‘devil dog’ status. And guess which dogs caused the most fatalities in the 1900’s? That’s right, bloodhounds. After that Newfoundland’s and mastiffs were the status dogs. Guess which dogs were responsible for the most fatal attacks then? Again, it was Newfoundland’s and mastiffs/mastiff mixes. After that it was rotties and Alsatian’s. You get the picture. People decide on which is the status breed at the time, dickheads buy them and turn them dangerous

There is a spectrum of responsible dog owning though, we have to be real about that. The percentage of people with perfectly trained dogs with perfect recall and “leave” command are a minority. Even more so, there can be gaps in socialisation from puppyhood (dogs who are fine with other dogs but not with strange people, fine with teenagers but wary of toddlers, fine with their owner but become stressed and reactive with strangers or infrequent visitors to the house such as grandchildren. Sometimes these things only become apparent with the rehoming of dogs which does seem to be a common factor with dog attacks. Furthermore some people are actual arseholes who intentionally train their dogs to be aggressive or overly protective of their owners/possessions/food, train their dogs to fight, physically abuse them or keep them caged and completely unsocialised at all. Sadly you see everything from the out of their depth/didn’t think through having a dog people through to the dangerous and sadistic.

There most certainly is a connection between a certain sort of person, the dog breed the choose and the way they train it, but dogs do have inherent breed behaviour tendencies too. Also, to state the dangerous dog act doesn’t prevent every tragic case, doesn’t mean it isn’t doing anything compared to the situation we may have if it didn’t exist. I definitely think the law needs to catch up, that owning a dangerous dog is put on par with carrying a dangerous weapon, and that illegal dog breeding should not remain as lucrative as drug dealing but with shorter sentences and less interest from the police.

Thank you. I highly appreciate your view. It’s difficult for us bully owners that love our dogs dearly and treat them as though they are part of the family. We get criticised, our dogs get labelled, god I’ve even had people on here calling me daft for having bullies in my home with my children. It’s not very fair. I’m in agreement with every comment that has been made on here regarding irresponsible owners and purchases of these dogs for the absolute wrong reasons. But I will not stand for the breed as a whole to be classified as viscous and aggressive, when I have living proof (2 of them) that they are the absolute opposite. Dogs don’t just attack or become aggressive for no reason. They do this when they feel threatened or fear or worse off when they have been shown nothing but aggression throughout their lives. The poor toddler who was mauled to death, that owner had the dog for one week! Not one bit of familiarity with the dog itself so why on earth would you bring the dog into your home and worse off alone with your toddler! It’s the owners fault, and I’m glad there are a few people on here with the same view as mine. Bullys are incredibly affectionate dogs, my dogs tails are wagging 24 hours of the day! Never once been aggressive, they wouldn’t hurt a spider crawling on the floor. #dontbullymybreed

Dogs don’t just attack or become aggressive for no reason. They do this when they feel threatened or fear or worse off when they have been shown nothing but aggression throughout their lives.

Dogs can also become aggressive through pain or illness - through no fault of their own, or their owners.

In the 19th century people were terrified of bloodhounds as they were what the police used to catch criminals.
I think you'll find that these were a form of mastiff, not the direct precursors of modern bloodhounds.

And @AllThingsServeTheBeam it's great that you have trained your collie. All the same, genetics are genetics. I have gundogs from a breed known for high prey drive and hard hunting, and they display both of these things (recall takes continuous training, heelwork is a competition with scent, and steadying them on game is something I do deliberately so that I can stop them on rabbits).

And training can fail and genetics can win. I've known extremely well-trained gundogs that compete in field trials get up after a hare and vanish over the horizon.

There is a reason that people who compete in the bite sports have Malinois: they want to work with the dog's genetics. You can breed away from strong drives (these same bite sports people complain that rotties have gone 'soft') and if the XL bully people have done that, then good, because the drives of fighting dogs are not exactly ideal in a crowded modern society.

It’s actually disgusting what some of you people say about this breed “don’t feel safe around them” “can’t breathe” “too bulky to walk”

If you took 5 minutes to research you’d understand why none of those things are true. I have a 6month old XL and he loves everything, can go on hour long walks without a single problem, can breathe just fine (that’s just plain dumb to say, a true XL has a muzzle longer than a staff’s proportionally and staffs breathe just fine). The dogs you met that can’t walk are probably fat and I doubt they are aggressive. It takes a special prick to make a dog aggressive. My dog sits when greeting children, doesn’t jump on anyone and wants to kiss and hug everything and is better trained than 95% of dogs out there, so you keep saying what all these dogs are like.

Take a real hard look at yourself and see who the “bully” is. Complaining about a well proportioned dog when you probably have no complaints against pugs, frenchies and any breed that looks like a rat crossbreed or potentially even own these types of dogs that lunge ar everything and everyone.

Get out of here with your hate and educate yourselves. Grown people hating on a dog.