‘My American Bully XL is probably the most loving canine — individuals have all of them mistaken’

Sam Carroll* was shocked to see the police outdoors his home in Caerphilly, South Wales, one morning.

He rapidly established that somebody had referred to as them due to his canine, Champ, a two-year-old hazel brown American XL Bully.

“They’d been told it was an illegal breed,” he tells Express.co.uk.

“But as soon as the police came to the house, Champ was in the open window getting stroked by them. ‘Does that look like a dangerous dog to you?’ I asked them. They soon left.”

The XL Bully has rapidly change into the main target of a brand new wave of panic and hysteria after a string of fatal attacks across the UK, one other breed that many want to see placed on the checklist of banned canine. Yet, some say the image is extra nuanced: a narrative of bewilderment, mistreatment, and malpractice on the planet of canine possession and breeding.

Figures show the number of deaths as a result of dog attacks rose from 4 in 2021 to 10 in 2022, with an extra 5 occurring in 2023 thus far.

Of these, the XL Bully has been linked to not less than 9 deaths. Countless petitions have been launched calling on the Government to consider banning the breed, with MPs even becoming a member of calls urging Downing Street to think about taking motion. Conservative politician Sir John Hayes went so far as to inform the House of Commons there was “no debate” wanted that the XL Bully should be banned.

But house owners and consultants say it is not merely a case of a breed being ‘unhealthy’.

“He’s a really rewarding dog to have,” says Mr Carroll. “He’s full of love, he always wants to be around me, he’s a genuinely lovely dog — he’s by my side as we speak. Not everyone can handle this dog, and not everyone should. These people who are giving them a bad name are idiots.”

In his view, the issue is sevenfold. That the breed usually will get “passed from pillar to post,” is mistreated by “having its ears cut,” and misunderstood by its house owners have all added as much as create an unstable state of affairs.

“They’re like humans, they’re like babies,” he says. “They need your time, they’re really intelligent, so when people can’t cope with them and send them away, they’re getting damaged, they’re getting PTSD.”

It is one thing Bullie Rescue UK, a charity that specialises in rehoming bull breed canine, says is an more and more frequent prevalence in Britain.

The charity tells Express.co.uk that it’s getting 400 to 500 requests each week to gather Bull breeds, something from a Staffordshire Bull Terrier to an XL Bully.

“Some people say they can no longer handle their dog so want to give it away,” the charity says. “Others are moving house and can’t move their dog into their new place, or their work hours have changed, or they’ve just had a baby.

“The craziest request to gather a canine we have had is that, ‘if I don’t give up my canine, my husband has stated he’ll promote our home.”

The gist of it all is that people are increasingly unaware of just how much time and patience it takes to own a dog, especially a breed like the Bully.

In many scenarios dogs that have spent a few months or even years in a household are viewed by their owners as having outgrown their home, the only solution being their removal. This is where the problems start.

The dogs often change hands or are repeatedly re-homed, or in the worst case scenario are abandoned altogether. This can, the experts say, change their behaviour and permanently damage the way they view and act around humans and in stressful situations.

‘There’s also the issue of people buying one breed but getting another,” the charity says. “Many people say they thought they were buying a Staffie but it’s turned into an XL Bully and they can’t handle it.”

For most, nevertheless, the Bully is their breed of alternative. People see their favorite celebrities, influencers, and actuality TV stars with the XL or micro variation, most of the time on social media, and invariably need to get one for themselves.

“This in itself is a huge issue,” says Jane Williams, a Committee Member of the Association of Pet Behavioural Counsellors (APBC), “and the Bully is often owned by wholly unsuitable humans.”

According to Ms Williams, the unsuitability is two-fold: “Either the owner wants to use it for criminal activities and trains it to become aggressive, or people get the dog and find themselves in a situation where they’re not actually suitable to own them.

“They do not give them care and a spotlight, which can lead to aggressive behaviour — these canine are being let down by criminality and neglect.”

That neglect isn’t what people may think of when imagining a badly treated dog. Ms Williams says it includes things like leaving the Bully alone for long periods of time while owners work, either at home or away. It might mean not taking it for long enough walks. It could simply be a case of not stimulating the canine sufficient.

“You may be with a canine bodily however nonetheless neglect its wants. And most house owners do not recognise this neglect and when their canine could also be exhibiting these indicators of stress.”

Mr Carroll constantly has to make sure Champ is kept busy with something. “He’s a handful to handle. He chews all the pieces: garments, mattresses, doorways. I’ve had about three settees,” he says.

In her research, Ms Williams says there is “no proof” that the American Bully and its variations are more predisposed to aggressive and erratic behaviour than other dogs.

Rather, she says, they simply require a different approach to well-known and well-documented breeds, the Bully itself only coming into existence in 2004.

While it doesn’t take away from the attack that countless lives have now been lost to Bully attacks, Ms Williams says: “There’s a hazard that we do not have a look at this correctly, from an proprietor’s perspective.”

“If the Government does simply add them to the rising checklist of banned canine, it is not going to forestall canine bites and accidents and fatalities. We’ll simply be ready till the subsequent ‘harmful’ breed comes round.”

*the canine proprietor’s title has been modified as per their request.