Link to the discussion in the House of Lords held on the 14th September regarding amending the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 along with the concerning comments from Lord Benyon the DEFRA Minister of State regarding Government intentions showing that its far from clear how they will implement their announced ban
A BBC interview with the UK Chief Veterinary Officer appears to confirm that there will be a period of amnesty for current owners of American Bully XL during which time owners will have to register their dogs and comply with the restrictions on prohibited breeds and that the exemption will be owner led as it was in 1991 stating, “Your dog will need to be neutered, it will need to be muzzled when out in public and on a lead, and insured.”
“But if you comply with these actions, and that means we will know where these dogs are, which will be a massive benefit, then yes absolutely you will be able to keep your dog”.
In light of this clarification we would strongly advise owners to prepare in advance by arranging neutering and becoming a member of Dogs Trust (which will include liability insurance which covers dogs defined under the Dangerous Dogs Act to a standard acceptable by the law) as soon as they are able. There is likely to be a huge demand for these services which is outside of the owners control but which must be undertaken before the end of the transition period
The comments in that discussion are beyond belief! One Lord seems to think an amnesty means mass cull (“…might they consider a national amnesty for the present illegal breeds to get the dogs off the street…” Lord Hogan-Howe)!
Not to mention, their complete inability to see the bleeding obvious, they keep stating XL bullies are responsible for “all these deaths” and yet they don’t know what one is well enough to ban it, so WHO decided these dogs were, in fact, XL bullies?! The dog that attacked the 11yr old in Birmingham looks like a big staffy to me, so who has decided that is an “XL bully”?!
Media scaremongering has made everyone nuts! There are approximately 12 millions dogs in the U.K., 12 MILLION, so the danger posed by dogs as killers is so small it’s not even able to be calculated. Between 2018 and 2022 more people died in the U.K. from being attacked by COWS than by dogs (in the same time frame). Yet no one is up in arms over that statistic!
The most concerning point for me though, is Lord Benyon’s COMPLETE lack of understanding of the current situation! He states “…the pit bull terrier, the Japanese Tosa, the Dogo Argentino and the Fila Brasileiro—the four species banned under the Act—are not breeds that have been involved in these awful attacks. One could therefore argue that there may have been more attacks if they had not been banned…” which shows his complete IGNORANCE of just how many of these “banned breeds” are still in the country, how many are being added to the index every year because they are deemed safe and the fact these are the ONLY dogs in the country who have been temperament tested as such yet THEN have to follow such strict conditions!
It beggars belief that people this far removed from the situation are having any say in it at all! SMH