‘I’m terrified my 18 XL Bully puppies will be put down under new rules’

The owner of the huge litter is scared the puppies will need to be put down (Image: Getty) The owner of 18 XL Bully puppies says it’s “soul destroying” that they could be put down under new plans to ban the killer breed. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced his intention to outlaw the savage XL Bully breed after a spate of attacks – one which killed a man in Staffordshire last week. But now the owner of a three-year-old female XL Bully which just gave birth to a litter of 18 pups is frightened they will be killed under new rules. Jamie, from North Lanarkshire in Scotland, said that there were no plans for his dog to have puppies but that it mated with his sister’s pet, who is also an XL Bully, and gave birth to the large litter which he says he will now struggle to find homes for. Jamie told LBC : ‘I’m an owner of a female XL Bully who wasn’t planned to be bred but my sister’s dog – also a Bully – mated with her and resulted in a rather large litter. XL Bullies have been responsible for a spate of attacks in the UK – one which killed a man last week (Image: Getty) ‘My plan was to neuter her and I actually enquired about it but it was too close to her season. ‘We took a lot of precautions to avoid her having contact with other animals.” Jamie said that it’s ‘absolutely heartbreaking’ that he’ll have to hand the dogs over to rescue centres and that the chance of them being put to sleep is ‘soul destroying.’ On Friday (September 15) Rishi Sunak vowed to officially ban American XL Bully dogs by the end of the year. In a video announcement posted to X, formerly Twitter, the Prime Minister said the breed would be banned due to a ‘pattern of behaviour’ that ‘cannot go on’. Meanwhile, Dog owners terrified their own XL Bully dogs will attack them are abandoning them in the streets and leaving them free to roam. Rescue shelters are being swamped with the unwanted breed – as prices for the dogs fall from £2,000 to £200. Vickie Phillips, manager at City Dogs Home, is calling for a total ban on the breen in the UK, reports the Mirror . She said: ‘We’ve had nasty ones here. ‘They can be aggressive to other dogs and they’ve tried to properly go for us.’ She said ‘every other dog’ brought to the centre in Bucknall, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, is an XL Bully or American Bulldog.