‘The whole plan is going to fail’ - Rescue home explains what XL Bully ban will really mean
From 31 December 2023 breeding, selling, advertising, rehoming, abandoning and allowing an XL Bully dog to stray will be illegal. New laws banning XL Bully type dogs have been laid in Parliament, as the Government adds the breed to the list of canines banned under the Dangerous Dogs Act.
Transcript
00:00 Under new rules which will come into force at the end of the year, it will be
00:04 illegal to breed, sell, advertise, exchange, gift, rehome, abandon or allow
00:12 ex-celled bully dogs to stray in England and Wales. The ban on the dog is not the
00:17 area where the problem is. So the area where the basically we've had this
00:21 problem before haven't we with other types of dog and we're going to have a
00:25 problem again with a different type of dog because the actual problem and the
00:30 cause the problem is with people. So those people might actually be political
00:34 leaders who actually haven't implemented the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991. It can be
00:40 opportunist breeders and then irresponsible owners. Local animal rescue
00:47 Freshfields say they believe successive governments have completely disregarded
00:51 the needs of the companion animals and the animal welfare sector. Dogs will need
00:56 to go into kennels while they're assessed and where those kennels exist
01:01 all the rescues are chocker already and then they've all got to go to the court
01:06 to actually confirm whether they are going to go on the banned list or
01:10 whether that's a dangerous dog or not. The courts can't cope already with the
01:15 amount of work that they've got so where is the capacity going to come from? Where
01:19 is the funding going to come from? I mean at that point the whole plan is going to
01:23 fail. The announcement follows Rishi Sunak's pledge in September to put in
01:28 place laws to ban the breed by the end of the year following a rise in fatal
01:32 attacks. When Rishi Sunak announced the ban we were distraught about the impact
01:38 knowing that it would impact on rescues and impact on people and who owners who
01:43 are responsible and the thing is is it sort of looks great to say we're going
01:50 to get a working group together we're going to put a ban on it
01:54 sounds like we're going to take action but that action has already been taken.
01:58 The Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 is there to deal with problem dogs it's all in place
02:04 already the reason that it's not working is because none of the resources have
02:08 been put into implementing it and those resources are police and they are courts
02:13 and they are assessors and it's not cheap. The pet industry is worth at least
02:18 six billion pounds. None of the revenues of the pet industry are actually going
02:22 back into some of the problems that come and the issues that come from having
02:27 pets and so yeah I think they'd be really helpful if some you need basically
02:33 you need to put some resources and infrastructure behind it and all we need
02:36 to do is implement what's already in place it's as simple as that really. From
02:40 the 31st of December 2023 these dogs must be kept on a lead and muzzled in
02:45 public. From the 1st of February 2024 it will become illegal to own an XL bully
02:52 dog if it is not on the registered index of exempt dogs. Owners who fail to comply
02:57 face a criminal record, a fine and their dog could be seized.