A year on from the XL bully ban, Hope Rescue CEO, Vanessa Waddon responds to a recent BBC article published this week as the ban nears its first anniversary.

Here are our key take aways:

“In many areas dog attacks show no sign of falling”. 

Dog related incidents will continue to rise if the Government doesn’t tackle the root causes. Breed is a poor indicator of risk of aggressive behaviour in individual dogs. Aggression is influenced by a range of factors including how they were bred and reared and their experiences throughout their lifetime, regardless of breed type.

“100 dangerous dogs a month on average have been destroyed”

How many of these dogs were actually “dangerous” or did they simply measure up to the breed type definition? Sadly here at Hope Rescue we have had to put to sleep four happy, healthy, rehomable XL Bullies this year. It is absolutely heartbreaking for our staff and volunteers.

“…the costs of kennelling thousands of seized dogs, often for months at a time, have risen sixfold to £25m a year”

Not only is prolonged kennelling a welfare concern, but this is money that could be better spent on education and preventative work to tackle the root causes.

“…more than half of the forces that provided responses about their kennels said they were full or near capacity.”

This is having a significant impact on the availability of kennels for stray dogs and dogs seized from illegal breeders, putting additional pressure on overstretched animal welfare charities who are at crisis point due to the increased demand for their services.

“…the owner had replaced his dog "within weeks" 

The current legislation does not protect the public from irresponsible owners. Sadly, XL bully dogs become commodities to many owners who encouraged aggressive behaviours. A ban on breed type does not stop them switching their focus to another powerful breed of large dog.

So what is needed?

We urgently need the UK Government to deal with owners whose dogs are dangerously out of control and pose a risk. We also need action against breeders who are using these dogs for profit.

At Hope Rescue we have long campaigned for tighter breeding legislation and increased resources for enforcement. We see the impact of poor breeding practices every day in our operational work. There has been an exponential increase in the number of illegal and low welfare breeders breeding inherently unhealthy dogs with extreme and exaggerated features, but local authorities simply don’t have the resources to deal with them.

Canine fertility clinics, the co-ownership breeding model, exclusion of stud dogs from breeding legislation, online sale of pets - so much more needs to be done.   

We need more effective enforcement and early interventions which bring dogs to the attention of law enforcement earlier if there is concern about their behaviour before it escalates. At the same time we need tougher sentences to punish and deter those who use dogs to harm other people.

We also need state-funded initiatives to work with the public to promote good and responsible dog guardianship to prevent incidents from happening, something our new Hope in the Community programme is working on our local communities but our resources are limited.

The law shouldn't focus on certain types of dogs, but instead deal with aggression in all dogs, with the response tailored on a case-by-case basis. Only then can we properly protect the public from aggressive behaviour in all dogs. When dogs, including XL bullies, are bred and reared poorly, and denied training, socialisation and good care, aggression becomes more likely. That’s what needs tackling.

We cannot and should not keep adding dogs to the banned list - we need a fundamental change to the law on dogs acting dangerously to protect the public now and in the future.