XL Bully ban in crisis after 113 days as full kennels forced to turn dogs away

The Government’s XL Bully ban is in crisis as “overwhelmed” kennels are forced to turn dogs away and police are told to stop seizing the banned breed as the system can’t cope, councils and dog experts have told i.

Following a string of fatal attacks in recent years, owners have been banned from owning an XL Bully in England and Wales without an exemption certificate since 31 January.

Dog legislation officers (DLOs) in charge of identifying the breed are struggling to cope with a surge in callouts since the legislation came into force, with untrained police officers being sent instead, one former DLO warned.

He added some rank-and-file officers are having to take pictures of the dogs on their camera phones so DLOs can decide whether they need to be seized.

Meanwhile, councils have told i they are being forced to refuse to take XL Bullies into their kennels due to a lack of capacity, “leading to existing arrangements breaking down in some areas”.

Debbie Connolly, a dog behaviourist who works closely with courts and police across the country, said the ban had exacerbated issues many forces were already suffering in securing with kennel space for banned animals.

“For the last 12 to 14 months, I would say at least 10 forces up and down the country have been desperately searching for kennel space and that’s prior to the XL issue,” she told i.

“That’s become more of a problem. Some kennels have said you’ll have to stop seizing dogs for a couple of weeks and get some of these other ones out of here.

“So they are struggling, and I do feel for the police in general and particularly for the dog legislation officers who, in my opinion, are completely overwhelmed by this with no extra resources put into this at all.”

Since 1 February, 2024, dog owners in England and Wales are only permitted to own an American XL Bully dog if they have a valid exemption certificate (Photo: Alberto Clemares Exposito/Getty Images)

The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) said there are 168 DLOs across England and Wales with some estimates putting the number of XL Bullies at 100,000 ahead of the ban.

The Government has approved 57,300 exemption certificates and received only 397 compensation claims from XL Bully owners who had their dogs euthanised ahead of the ban, according to freedom of information figures.

But tens of thousands of owners are not thought to have applied for an exemption for their animal, with dangerous dog expert witnesses branding the current situation “madness”.

With resources stretched, Michael Barnett, a former DLO with Warwickshire Police, said he was aware of one officer spending three to four full days logging details of suspected XL Bullies on a computer.

And with expert DLO’s “inundated”, he said regular officers are being called on to knock on owners’ doors and check on dogs believed to be XL Bullies.

“The problem with a regular cop going is they don’t know what they’re looking at,” Mr Barnett said.

“In some instances, you’ve got regular cops showing up with a mobile phone to snap a few pictures of a dog and send it to a DLO.

“Who then has to say, ‘Well, yeah, it might be’. And then they have got to actually go and see the dog to have a proper look at it.”

A dog owner was mauled to death by her two registered XL Bullies in Hornchurch, East London (Photo: William Warnes/PA Wire)

Some forces may only have three or four DLOs to manage thousands of dogs, he said, with at least double the current number of officers required across the country.

The Metropolitan Police, for example, has seven DLOs to cover the whole of London.

“Depending on what Defra (Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs) wants, they may send out a list saying, all these are the people in your area, do you think you could go around and look at all these dogs?” Mr Barnett said.

“And some forces are going, we just haven’t got the capacity to do that.”

XL Bullies registered as exempt must be microchipped, kept on a lead and muzzled in public and be neutered to comply with the rules.

But there were concerns over some dog owners who had registered their XL being unable to meet the Government’s first deadline for neutering as their bitch was in season and could not be spayed.

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Ms Connolly, who acts as an expert witness in dangerous dog court cases, urged Defra to urgently address the problem, as panicked owners bombard lawyers with calls ahead of the looming cut-off point on 30 June.

She said: “Otherwise we get to 30 June and we’ve got people who have otherwise exempted their dog and done everything right, but they can’t get their interim certificate in time. The police will, presumably, be told to start seizing these dogs.”

The British Veterinary Association (BVA) has urged XL Bully owners to book their dog for neutering to avoid bottlenecks before next month’s first deadline.

While police forces usually have contracts with private kennel providers to house seized dogs, councils are also seeing a rise in strays as a result of the ban.

Hull City Council was recently forced to approve an extra £19,710 in annual funding to expand its kennels from 10 to 16 to meet demand.

As well as a lack of space, some kennels used by councils are understood to have problems with getting insurance to hold XL Bullies.

A spokesperson for the Local Government Association said: “Protecting the public from dangerous dogs is complex work and we remain concerned that the ban on XL Bullies has been introduced without sufficient time to plan how it would work in practice.

“More than five times as many XL Bullies exist in the UK as was originally thought and councils are encountering a number of challenges when implementing this ban.

“This includes finding that some kennels are refusing to take XL Bullies as well as some vets are unwilling to destroy them, leading to existing arrangements breaking down in some areas. This has led to councils having to make new costly arrangements at short notice.”

It comes after a woman in her fifties was mauled to death at home by her two XL Bullies in Hornchurch, east London on Monday, in what is thought to be the first fatal attack by dogs known to have been registered under the new laws.

Days after the ban came into effect, a grandmother was savaged to death by XL Bullies at a home in Jaywick, Essex.

And this week, a mother and son were jailed after an eight-year-old boy was seriously injured in a “savage and sustained attack” by an XL Bully in Bootle, Merseyside.

Since the ban was introduced in England and Wales, similar legislation has been introduced in Scotland and is set to be brought forward in Northern Ireland.

A Defra spokesperson said: “The ban on XL Bullies is now in place meaning it is illegal to own one of these dogs unless it has been registered.

“We have delivered our pledge to bring in this important measure to protect public safety, and we expect all XL Bully owners to comply with the strict conditions. Alongside this, we have supported the police to deliver additional training to ensure the ban is effectively enforced and have set up a Responsible Dog Ownership taskforce to look at how training and education could help reduce dog attacks.”

An NPCC spokesperson said: “We’ve been working with forces to ensure there are enough dog legislation officers trained to meet demand.

“Forces across the country continue to manage both demand and risk, establishing adequate kennelling provisions.”