In the past few years, you may have noticed a terrifyingly large breed of dog stalking the streets of Britain: the infamous XL Bully.
An offshoot of the American Pit Bull Terrier, it’s hard to miss an XL Bully when you pass one in the street. Often weighing more than nine stone (or 57 kg) and with males at least 20 inches tall at the shoulders, they are defined by the government as ‘heavily-muscled’, with a blocky head, and a physique ‘suggesting great strength and power for its size.’
The breed can probably be summed up best though as a kind of hellhound on steroids. XL Bullys seem to have a remarkable propensity for violence, with this one breed believed to be responsible for the number of fatal dog attacks in the UK rising to at least 16 in 2023.
In October last year – after a spate of XL Bully attacks and a viral video showing an XL Bully attacking a girl and two men in Birmingham – the government announced that it would add the breed to the dangerous dogs list. Since February, it has been illegal to own an XL Bully without an exemption certificate, and registered dogs have to be kept on a lead and wear a muzzle outside.
It appears the ban has not stopped the attacks though, with two people killed by XL Bullys since February. In May, a woman in east London was killed by her two XL Bully dogs – both of which were registered. Only this week, a man in Bolton was in court after his XL Bully, named ‘Menace’, attacked another dog.
The problem of XL Bully dogs has clearly not gone away. That is why The Spectator submitted a freedom of information request to the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, to find out where the 50,000 registered XL Bully dogs live in England and Wales.
Now, for the first time, we can reveal how many XL Bullys live in your local area.
The data shows that the worst place in the country for XL Bully ownership is in Croydon, where there are 219 XL Bullys in the CR0 postcode region. The second worst hotspot is the S5 postcode area just north of Sheffield, where there are 189 of these dogs, followed closely by an area of Warrington with 182 Bullys.
It’s worth stressing that while XL Bullys frequently attack their own owners, members of the public, or friends and acquaintances of XL bully owners, can often be caught up in their horrific attacks.
This week, a court heard how a young woman has been terrified to leave her home after she was attacked by two Bullys in her local park. The woman reportedly fell to the ground after being bitten multiple times by the dogs. (The owner denies two counts of being in charge of a dangerously out of control dog.)
In May 2023, a 37-year-old man was looking after an XL Bully called Poseidon for his friend, when the animal turned on him, biting his scalp and the back of his neck for ten to 15 minutes until he went into cardiac arrest and suffered catastrophic blood loss. The doctor on duty that day said it was the ‘single worst trauma case’ he’d seen in his ten-year career.
Frequently, children are victims. In 2021, a ten-year-old boy in Caerphilly was mauled to death by an XL Bully named ‘Beast’ when visiting someone else’s home after playing nearby. He had ‘unsurvivable’ injuries from the attack. A 17-month-old baby girl was killed in 2022 when an XL Bully dog snatched the child from her mother’s arms.
We can only hope that the government ban stops more attacks like this from happening. Unfortunately, given the sheer number of XL Bullys still in Britain, it seems that more deaths are inevitable.