Illegal dog?

[Toomanyweeks]

I recently discovered that my mum's husband's dog is possibly partly an illegal breed according to his son- part pitbull I think. He seems a little unpredictable but friendly enough, however I am not willing to have him around my children.

My mum and her husband don't see that there is a problem and they are adamant that he is not illegal and perfectly safe, but he is very muscular, extremely powerful and a little excitable.

They have recently taken him to the vet several times for an issue with his leg and he's on medication. The vet obviously hasn't flagged anything up in terms of his breed when they've treated him so I'm wondering if he is safe afterall?

Since 1986, Jack Russells have been responsible for the deaths of three babies. To me, that's a shockingly high number considering their size, yet there are no calls to ban the Jack Russell.

I also don't really understand your point about banned breeds having the jaws and power to kill adults, though, because lots of perfectly legal breeds have similarly powerful jaws? Is your answer to ban all dogs over a certain size? How do giant breeds like St Bermards (who have never killed a person but that are about 3-4 times the weight of your average dog) fit in to that?

Banning breeds doesn't prevent deaths. Pitbulls were banned and all that happened was that people bred XL bullies instead. The Dogo Argentino is illegal but looks very similar to the perfectly legal American Bulldog. The number of fatalities by dogs has actually increased since we banned the so-called "most dangerous" breeds.

As much as I think the dangerous dogs act is a really crap piece of legislation, I'm permanently amazed that these XL Bullies aren't being seized as "pit bull types".

The American pit bull was used as the foundation breed for the XL Bullies (according to Wikipedia anyway) before being crossed with a few other bull breeds. I'm certain the tape measure would deem a significant proportion of them to be pitbull type. They're almost universally owned by twats who want to appear tough (many of them choose ear mutilation too), and are very disproportionately overrepresented in fatal attacks on humans in the last few years.

On the topic of Jack Russells, it should be noted that until 2016 they weren't recognised as a breed by the Kennel Club, and so the vast majority of dogs around today are basically just small terriers of a type. As a result, anything that looks small and terrierish and of questionable parentage tends to be labelled as a Jack Russell or Jack Russell cross. They're not a breed in the traditional sense of the word, and don't have the sort of relatively consistent temperament that you get from a well established breed like a Labrador or a husky.

Yes to this! When looking up the breed specifics for JRT almost all the ones we see out and about that people call Jack Russells, are just terrier types, of varying size and stature. My mum has a small army of "Jack Russells"... one as small as a chihuahua (and the temperament of a Pitbull) one with very long legs, but "pointy up" ears, one that's the size of a spaniel, and one that looks like a Labrador puppy that's never grown up. All with extremely different personalities...

I agree. I went down a random YouTube rabbit hole recently at coverage of the owner meet-ups and broadly concur. They clearly love the dogs but a lot also use them for “security” and “protection” etc. and breeding them for size so they’re more likely to be trained a certain way and for that purpose, combined with being bred from a variety of fighting/bull breeds so have the physique and breed instinct to do serious harm in an uncertain or opportunistic situation.

combined with being bred from a variety of fighting/bull breeds so have the physique and breed instinct to do serious harm in an uncertain or opportunistic situation.
That's the issue. Breed traits are a real thing. Genetics are powerful. This is why gamekeepers and pest controllers breed particular combinations. Obviously not every puppy from a litter will display the traits they want, but enough of them will to make it worth their while. If you breed fighting and guarding breeds together, you are not going to lose the genetics, You're just going to make them harder to predict.

As much as I think the dangerous dogs act is a really crap piece of legislation, I'm permanently amazed that these XL Bullies aren't being seized as "pit bull types".

The police don't just go round random
homes looking for "pit bull type dogs" though - so unless they're reported as dangerous, nothing is going to happen.

I'd also say though that a lot of what we think of as bully breeds look nothing like an actual pit bull terrier.

I agree that enforcement is, at best, reactive rather than proactive, and sometimes not active at all.

The tape measure way of determining a pit bull type isn't fit for purpose, but a lot of these XL Bullies would surely be typed according to the tape measure.

What's the issue? Just explain to your mum that you don't want the dog around the children. If she won't comply then don't leave your children with your mum when the dog is there.

The tape measure way of determining a pit bull type isn't fit for purpose, but a lot of these XL Bullies would surely be typed according to the tape measure.

I'm sure they would be, but again but requires the public to be proactive and report them. It also requires the police and animal charities to listen to people's complaints and act on them.

And I suspect the police have better things to do than go around measuring dogs on the off chance that one day they could hurt someone.