Expert assessors told us that as many as a third of the dogs registered with Defra may not be XL bullies, but there is not yet any guidance about how to remove them from the register.
The police chiefs want to see changes that would allow them to caution responsible owners who may unwittingly have bought an XL bully, while still having strong powers to clamp down on illegal breeders and persistent offenders.
Defra said the XL bully ban was “an important measure to protect public safety” and it would continue to work with police, local authorities and animal welfare groups to prevent dog attacks “using the full force of the law where needed”.
In Lisa’s case, she had been on a walk with her terrier, Duke, in June when a French bulldog attacked him. Moments later an XL bully-type dog came out of a garden, crossed the road and attacked Lisa.
“I just thought it was going to kill me,” she said. “It was so powerful, it was literally hanging off my arm and no matter what, I just couldn’t get it off.”
People nearby heard her screaming and helped get the dog off her, but she said her arm was “shredded”. She feared she would bleed to death and asked her rescuers to call her husband “so I could say goodbye”.
Lisa, who contacted us about her story through Your Voice, Your News, was taken to hospital. The animal that attacked her was seized by police and destroyed the same day – normal procedure when a dog is involved in a serious incident.
She is being treated for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and she says she feels “powerless” to stop something like this happening again.
“I need to make sure these people have consequences for their actions because if it continues, someone else is going to get killed, someone else is going to be attacked,” she said.
