The clock is ticking for Hercules, Bert and Hannah, three strays at the Dublin County Dog Shelter. There are only nine days left for any homeless XL bully dogs like them in rescue centres around the country to find a new owner or they face being euthanised under new laws from October 1st.
Hercules has been adopted once but it did not work out and he was returned after a few weeks; Bert and Hannah are more recent arrivals. The Newcastle shelter is looking for experienced dog owners, with no other pets and a large garden, to take each of them in, says assistant manager Emily Nash. Another failed placement would likely cost them their lives.
This banning of a particular type of dog is a first for Ireland. It seems to many like an eminently sensible move considering that XL bullies have been involved in horrific fatal and maiming attacks. Just last weekend a man in north Co Dublin was injured in an attack by his own XL bully, which was later put down. Announcement of the ban last July, by the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys, came a month after Nicole Morey had been killed by her own dogs, including an XL bully, in her Co Limerick home. The Minister said: “No dog’s life is worth more than human life. Ultimately that is what guided me in making this decision”. One month later, a 12-month-old girl was seriously injured after being attacked by an XL bully dog in Lixnaw in Co Kerry.
From October 1st the importing, breeding, selling and rehoming of XL bullies will be prohibited. From February 1st next year it will be illegal to own an XL bully without a certificate of exemption, which will require the animal to have been neutered as well as licensed and microchipped, which is already mandatory for all dogs. Similar regulations are already in force in England, Wales, Scotland and, latterly, Northern Ireland, which introduced the first phase on July 5th last. Owners there have until the end of December to get their certificates.
Some animal welfare organisations oppose the new regulations. The focus should be on irresponsible owners not specific dogs, they say. These “populist” measures will not increase public safety, they argue but will lead to hundreds of dogs being euthanised because of what they look like rather than how they act.
Dog control is, says Co Wicklow vet Pete Wedderburn, a much more complex issue than targeting one particular type among the estimated half a million canines of all shapes, sizes and temperaments in Ireland. However, a veterinary colleague, James Madden, a member of the working group on control of dogs, believes the singling out of XL bullies is justified. He points to UK statistics which show that out of 23 fatalities in dog attacks over the last three years 13 of those related to XL bullies. Yet this type of dog is estimated to be less than 5 per cent of the total dog population in the UK.
Back in 1991 the UK banned pit bulls, along with three other breeds, after a spate of attacks. The emergence of XL bully dogs since then is cited as evidence that breed-specific legislation does not work.
Brenda Fitzpatrick of the Working Animal Guardians (Wag) rescue service says “it just redirects these backstreet breeders into breeding other types of dogs, such as the cane corso [originally a Roman dog of war] and into more hybrid breeding, because for them these dogs are economic units. We saw that first-hand during Covid. What we are calling on is a ban on the breeding of XL bully dogs and all hybrid breeding.” This would not only allow all existing XL bullies to live out their lives but prevent diversification into the production of similar fearsome “status” dogs.
Exactly how XL bullies will be distinguished from other American bully breed types has not been clarified at the time of writing. However, regulations here are expected to follow UK criteria that includes descriptors such as “large dog with a muscular body and blocky head, suggesting great strength and power for its size”. The most definitive measure seems to be the minimum height at the withers of 51cm/48cm for adult males/females.
Wag also wants a confidential line set up so that people can anonymously report backyard breeding. “People have been getting away with this for decades and decades. So this quick fix of just killing a population of dogs is absolutely abhorrent,” says Fitzpatrick. Right now she is trying to get some XL bullies to Sweden.
A rescue organisation there, Hundar Utan Hem, has taken in an estimated 11,000 unwanted Irish dogs since 2005, and rehomed them in Sweden and Finland. In an open letter to all politicians here it says it is “heartbroken” and “frankly broke” from accepting about 700 dogs a year from Ireland.
“We’ll keep helping Irish dogs but this time you’ve not given us enough time. Instead of fixing the problem at the source you’ve implemented a useless, populistic, indiscriminate ban on a whole group of innocent individuals that will fix nothing.
“As a dog welfare organisation we’re all for breeding regulations, enforcing responsible dog ownership laws, and even phasing out breeds that potentially can cause issues. But what is happening in Ireland right now, and what has happened in several other countries where irrational breed bans have been put in place in an ill thought out panicked attempt at scoring quick political points is nothing short of inhumane and cruel.”
There is no place for dogs bred to fight and intimidate, says Dawn Divilly, director of operations at Mutts Anonymous Dog Rescue and Adoption in Galway, but by naming one hybrid, the wait begins for another to pop up, like “whack-a-mole”. It is so frustrating, she says, because resources being put into this takes away from tackling root causes of dangerous dogs and enforcement of existing legislation. Unlike the UK, Ireland does have a list of 11 restricted breeds that are required to be muzzled, on a leash and handled by somebody over 16 in public spaces.
Divilly, a member of the dog control stakeholder group set up by the Government last March, says: “Breed bans can be seen politically as a quick way to fix things and, I suppose, give the public some confidence.” But it could be misplaced confidence if the UK is anything to go by.
In five months since the second phase of the legal crackdown on XL bullies was implemented in England and Wales on February 1st last there has been a 9 per cent rise in the number of recorded incidents of out of control dogs injuring people or guide dogs. There were also at least seven fatal dog attacks, including the savaging to death of a 68-year-old woman by two XL bullies. Police in England and Wales recorded 6,392 attacks, up from 5,888 in the same period in 2023, according to data from 27 police forces collated by the Independent newspaper.
[ Q&A: the ban on XL bully dogs - how will it work?Opens in new window ]
In Nash’s experience at the Co Dublin shelter, where they rarely know the dogs’ background, some XL bullies are lazy and gentle, others can be jumpy. “They all have different personalities really.”
Like people. That is why Rowan Morrey in Co Laois says being asked: ‘why have an XL bully?’ is the same to him as ‘why have a dog?’
“A handful of dogs doesn’t describe all dogs or a whole breed.” He knows the XL bully called Bear that he shares with his wife, Alanna J McDermott, as “the giver of hugs and the champion of the common shrew, defending them from cats in the garden”.
McDermott, a primary schoolteacher, took in Bear as a foster dog just after the schools closed for Covid in March 2020. She had no idea then that the pandemic would be so prolonged, nor that Bear would turn out to be so “fabulous”, he would still be living with them more than four years later.
Having had no previous experience with bull breeds, McDermott says “I just totally fell in love”. Bear, surrendered by an owner at a Dubin pound, is “such a kind dog. He doesn’t understand that some people would look at him and see a monster.”
[ Will the ban on XL bully dogs work? Dog wardens have their sayOpens in new window ]
Although, out in public with his muzzle on, he does “look like Hannibal Lecter”. But she always puts it on now, “not to keep other people safe, it’s to keep my dog safe”. With such a stigma around dogs like Bear, “I can’t take that risk if someone says something or if Bear looks at them crooked, that’s it, my dog is dead.”
She used to occasionally bring him into school, where the children loved him, and he them. But she will not do that again considering the increased public fear about such dogs. Walking him along a street one day, McDermott was very upset when a woman screamed at her: “He will kill people. He will eat babies.”
The new legislation will not change things for Bear and his owners other than them having to apply and pay for a certificate of exemption. Bear is already neutered and can spend the rest of his days with them but McDermott is angry that other dogs will be “euthanised needlessly”.
“It’s like sometimes I see it with education, we copy England’s bad ideas,” she adds.
Rowan Woodgates of Greystones, Co Wicklow, has had his three-year-old tricolour XL bully Goose since he was a puppy. He was looking for a companion for a black Labrador/German Shepherd mix he had at the time and the opportunity to buy Goose came through a friend of a friend who had bred him.
He says he was concerned about any possible link to “notorious” pit bulls, so he and his then girlfriend did a lot of research and satisfied themselves that XL bullies were different. “We live in an estate so we wanted to be cautious.”
A very experienced dog owner, Woodgates says he has never had any trouble with Goose, either inside or outside the home. “He’s an absolute angel, a proper family dog.” Woodgates has no children of his own, but Goose has always been great with friends’ children who visit. He stresses that he put a lot of time into training him properly, “it wasn’t just like, oh, we got him and he’s a big softie from the get-go. We did have to be very careful.”
It goes back to that argument, he says, that “there are no bad dogs and only bad owners”. Why punish one entire type of dog just because there is a “couple of outliers out there who are aggressive and have the ability to cause serious harm”? Meanwhile other dogs such as the cane corso that has “twice the bite force” are not baned. He is also not too happy at being forced to get Goose neutered before December 31st.
Owners of dogs on the restricted breeds list tend to think there is no problem with their particular animal, says Katie McCarthy – until there is. Her 12-year-old son was bitten last May during a visit to a friend of hers by a pit bull terrier that he had cuddled up with on the couch many a time in the past. But on this occasion the boy was out playing with the dog in the back garden and kicked a bone that was lying there.
[ Limerick dog attack: What is an XL bully and how dangerous are they?Opens in new window ]
“The dog went for him,” she says. “It wasn’t just a warning bite, he was in full attack mode.” Both she and the owner rushed out, screaming at the dog, trying to distract it.
Gardaí arrived soon after and the dog was taken away and put down. Her traumatised son had to have surgery and is left with a lifelong scar on his wrist as well as a fear of dogs. The experience illustrates for McCarthy, a dog lover herself, how certain types have this attack instinct bred into them and are just not suitable as household pets.
In the first seven months of this year more than 400 dog attacks were reported to An Garda Síochána across the country. Between January and the first week into July there were 228 dog attacks on people, 103 on livestock and 116 on other animals including dogs. There were 850 attacks recorded in 2023.
In 2022 a total of 791 incidences of aggressive dog behaviour were reported to local authorities, with 308 people physically injured (this includes damage to clothes). That was the year Alejandro Mizsan (nine) was severely mauled by an XL bully which ran loose on to a housing estate green in Enniscorthy, Co Wexford.
If the experiences of the USPCA across the Border are anything to go by, requests to rescue centres to take in XL bullies for rehoming will not stop here after October 1st. But Siobhan McHaffie of the USPCA says they cannot come into their centre in Newry, Co Down, unless the owner has booked the dog for euthanasia by a vet.
Lack of awareness of the new regulations is one problem as is the cost of the mandatory neutering, that can be up to £400 (approximately €475). (It is hoped vouchers for this will be available under the Republic’s scheme but that is not confirmed.) With all the “grey areas” around identification, McHaffie says, they are advising some owners, especially those with bully type puppies, to apply for exemptions just in case. A young dog may not reach the height that deems it to be XL. Bert, at nine months old, is a case in point. He is not there yet but the Co Dublin shelter is taking no chances, desperately trying to get him rehomed before the deadline.
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