‘My American Bully XL is the most loving dog — people have them all wrong’

Sam Carroll* was surprised to see the police outside his house in Caerphilly, South Wales, one morning. He quickly established that someone had called them because of his dog, Champ, a two-year-old hazel brown American XL Bully . “They’d been told it was an illegal breed,” he tells Express.co.uk. “But as soon as the police came to the house, Champ was in the open window getting stroked by them. ‘Does that look like a dangerous dog to you?’ I asked them. They soon left.” The XL Bully has quickly become the focus of a new wave of panic and hysteria after a string of fatal attacks across the UK , another breed that many would like to see put on the list of banned dogs. Yet, some say the picture is more nuanced: a story of misunderstanding, mistreatment, and malpractice in the world of dog ownership and breeding. Carroll says Champ is one of the most loving dogs he’s ever owned (Image: Instagram) Figures show the number of deaths as a result of dog attacks rose from four in 2021 to ten in 2022, with a further five occurring in 2023 so far. Of those, the XL Bully has been linked to at least nine deaths. Countless petitions have been launched calling on the Government to consider banning the breed , with MPs even joining calls urging Downing Street to consider taking action. Conservative politician Sir John Hayes went as far as to tell the House of Commons there was “no debate” needed that the XL Bully must be banned. But owners and experts say it isn’t simply a case of a breed being ‘bad’. “He’s a really rewarding dog to have,” says Mr Carroll. “He’s full of love, he always wants to be around me, he’s a genuinely lovely dog – he’s by my side as we speak. Not everyone can handle this dog, and not everyone should. These people who are giving them a bad name are idiots.” In his view, the problem is sevenfold. That the breed often gets “passed from pillar to post,” is mistreated by “having its ears cut,” and misunderstood by its owners have all added up to create an unstable situation. “They’re like humans, they’re like babies,” he says. “They need your time, they’re really intelligent, so when people can’t cope with them and send them away, they’re getting damaged, they’re getting PTSD.” XL Bully’s like Champ can grow as tall as 23 inches and weigh as much as 60kg (Image: Instagram) It is something Bullie Rescue UK , a charity that specialises in rehoming bull breed dogs, says is an increasingly common occurrence in Britain. The charity tells Express.co.uk that it is getting 400 to 500 requests every week to collect Bull breeds, anything from a Staffordshire Bull Terrier to an XL Bully. “Some people say they can no longer handle their dog so want to give it away,” the charity says. “Others are moving house and can’t move their dog into their new place, or their work hours have changed, or they’ve just had a baby. “The craziest request to collect a dog we’ve had is that, ‘if I do not surrender my dog, my husband has said he will sell our house.” The gist of it all is that people are increasingly unaware of just how much time and patience it takes to own a dog, especially a breed like the Bully. In many scenarios dogs that have spent a few months or even years in a household are viewed by their owners as having outgrown their home, the only solution being their removal. This is where the problems start. The dogs often change hands or are repeatedly re-homed, or in the worst case scenario are abandoned altogether . This can, the experts say, change their behaviour and permanently damage the way they view and act around humans and in stressful situations. Champ as a puppy; Carroll has brought the Bully up from a pup (Image: Instagram) ‘There’s also the issue of people buying one breed but getting another,” the charity says. “Many people say they thought they were buying a Staffie but it’s turned into an XL Bully and they can’t handle it.” For most, however, the Bully is their breed of choice. People see their favourite celebrities, influencers, and reality TV stars with the XL or micro variation, more often than not on social media, and invariably want to get one for themselves. “This in itself is a huge issue,” says Jane Williams, a Committee Member of the Association of Pet Behavioural Counsellors (APBC), “and the Bully is often owned by wholly unsuitable humans.” According to Ms Williams, the unsuitability is two-fold: “Either the owner wants to use it for criminal activities and trains it to become aggressive, or people get the dog and find themselves in a situation where they’re not actually suitable to own them. “They don’t give them care and attention, which can result in aggressive behaviour – these dogs are being let down by criminality and neglect.” Many dogs are either given up or abandoned, often leading to lifelong behavioural problems (Image: GETTY) That neglect isn’t what people may think of when imagining a badly treated dog. Ms Williams says it includes things like leaving the Bully alone for long periods of time while owners work, either at home or away. It might mean not taking it for long enough walks. It could simply be a case of not stimulating the dog enough . “You can be with a dog physically but still neglect its needs. And most owners don’t recognise this neglect and when their dog may be showing those signs of stress.” Mr Carroll constantly has to make sure Champ is kept busy with something. “He’s a handful to manage. He chews everything: clothes, mattresses, doors. I’ve had about three settees,” he says. In her research, Ms Williams says there is “no evidence” that the American Bully and its variations are more predisposed to aggressive and erratic behaviour than other dogs. Rather, she says, they simply require a different approach to well-known and well-documented breeds, the Bully itself only coming into existence in 2004. While it doesn’t take away from the attack that countless lives have now been lost to Bully attacks, Ms Williams says: “There’s a danger that we don’t look at this properly, from an owner’s perspective.” “If the Government does just add them to the growing list of banned dogs, it’s not going to prevent dog bites and injuries and fatalities. We’ll just be waiting until the next ‘dangerous’ breed comes around.” * the dog owner’s name has been changed as per their request.