Category: Dog Breeding

Party in response to the Covid-19 epidemic in 2020, China officially banned the sale of dog meat. Nevertheless, the annual Yulin dog meat festival was held in defiance of the ban and it is estimated that 10 million dogs and 4 million cats are still being slaughtered for human consumption in China alone.

South Korea recognised that, however unpalatable (literally) to some sensibilities, the eating of dog and cat meat is deeply rooted in many Asian cultures and has attempted to phase out the practice over three years from 2024 to give vendors an opportunity to seek alternative livelihoods. After that, anyone violating the sale could be subject to three years imprisonment or a fine of approximately £16,000.

Eating dog is already in decline across Asia, but that does not stop the, often inhume, slaughter of millions of animals, hence the desire of governments to stamp out the trade rather than wait for it to fizzle out.

Few would argue that this should eventually make life better for dogs and cats but, in the meantime, there is problem of what to do with animals that have already been earmarked for slaughter. Life is not neat. Even though the processing of dogs will be legal in South Korea until 2027, dog meat farmers are finding it difficult to sell the dogs that they have already. Many may not be suitable for life as a companion animal or will require intensive remedial support which is likely not to be undertaken and even be affordable for anyone willing to take in a dog.

Ironically, it may result in mass culling of dogs which, whilst it may seem almost as bad as slaughtering them for the meat trade, will at least mean that they have a humane and quick death and will not result in a ticking time bomb of thousands of un-rehomeable dogs languishing in kennels for the rest of their lives.

It is sadly no surprise that the government has indeed jerked the knee and brought in a ban on the XL Bully.

There was a lot of wasted breath, words and time spent by those who know considerably more about the problem than the government – indeed who have to deal with the consequences – in trying to explain why this is a colossal error.

Presumably the government thinks that it can get some easy Brownie points and gain popularity with the red tops by doing this. It surely couldn’t have been because it has learned the lessons from banning the so-called pit bull.

Just as with many kennel club breed standards, it is impossible to work out what dog is being described, the DEFRA “definition” of an XL Bully is so wide as to encompass pretty much every large bull breed. Most police officers don’t know one end of a dog from another so it’s likely that a lot of heartache will ensue and a lot of dogs will be condemned to restricted lives without cause or good reason.

Unlike the previous bans, the government are proposing to offer compensation of £200 (£100 for a “rescue” dog) if owners wish healthy dogs to be euthanised. Currently, the British Veterinary Association policy on euthanasia supports fully vet’s right to refuse to euthanise a healthy animal. Quite what the position will be with a proscribed dog remains to be seen.

It is likely that some owners, perhaps many owners, will not be able or willing to pay the £92.40 required to register a dog deemed to be an XL Bully in addition to the cost of neutering and obligatory insurance. Vets are already under pressure, and the prospect of perhaps many hundreds of owners requesting neutering or euthanasia is unlikely to be able to be accommodated within the timeframe allowed by the law. It will be illegal to re-home, sell, buy or transfer ownership of an XL Bully dog to another person, including rescues, from December 31st, 2023.

The prospect of maybe hundreds of dogs simply being abandoned doesn’t bear thinking about, but it is a very real possibility.

I just hope that I am proved wrong.

It has been an appalling year already for serious injuries and fatalities involving dogs.

The Met alone seized 479 out-of-control dogs under the Dangerous Dogs Act in 2022 146 more than in 2021. 154 dogs had already been seized by May this year.

44 of the seizures were XL bullies, compared to 16 Staffie crosses. No American bulldogs were seized in 2018 or 2019 by the force. In the UK overall in 2022, there were nearly 22,000 cases of out-of-control dogs causing injury. In 2018, there were just over 16,000, the UK’s dog population having been estimated to have risen by only 15% in the same period of time.

The reasons for the rise in incidents are complex, but include poor breeding and rearing, poor handling and ignorance of owners plus the minority who deliberately want their dogs to be perceived as intimidating.

There is a push for XL bullies to be added to the list of banned breeds but this would not solve the problem. In fact, yet more legislation will do little but to enable the police and other agencies to deal with the “low hanging fruit” unless considerable resources are committed to back up the legislation that we already have and which is rarely enforced. This would go a long way to preventing back street breeding, illegal boarding and out of control dogs.

Dogs have always been used to exemplify the perceived status of their owners – and that applies as much to the Labrador and spaniel (“my other house is an estate”) as to the XL Bully (be scared of my dog, be scared of me). Demonising whatever the latest fad is in dog breeding ignores the elephant in the room that all dogs have the potential to be dangerous in the wrong hands and under the wrong circumstances.

Research proves that BSL has failed everywhere it has been tried: research and statistics prove that the Dangerous Dogs Act has been an abject failure. Let’s not allow MPs to tick a box, add a breed and then think that their job is done. It won’t save lives.