NEWS AND COMMENT: The American XL bully dog story is worse than we thought. This type of dog is going to be banned in the UK because it is killing and injuring people and their pets. The shocking news today is that this dog type (it is not a registered breed) is being trained by owners and breeders to be a weapon. To me attack dogs and to be an animal causes fear in others.
This is being achieved by:
- Selective breeding from super-strong and large foundation dogs such as Killer Kimbo
- Feeding the dogs steroids
- Feeding them body-builder supplements
- Using police-style training techniques to make them more aggressive and defensive
- Employing so called ‘bite-work’ sessions to get them to bite more
- Employing dog-bite sleeves to train them to attack and bite
- Training the dogs to go for people on command
And all of it is being filmed and the video uploaded to social media sites for the entertainment of the masses and to instruct others on how to make these animals more dangerous. That would appear to be in violation of social media platforms by the way.
What these American XL bully owners and breeders are doing is quite possibly criminal as it might be a violation of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 in the UK. And the relevant act in other countries such as the US.
As the dog training occurs in public places The Times newspaper suggests that they may also be committing public order offences.
They men doing this say that they are training their dogs to be family protection animals. But they appear to have crossed the line and are turning immensely powerful dogs into dangerous weapons capable of killing a grown man. If and American XL bully attacks a man for long enough the man dies.
Many of the dog exercises seen on video mimic methods used by police forces to train service dogs in drugs and firearms raids according to a police dog handler.
The trainers have built obstacle courses using bouncy castles and agitation tables to teach the dogs how to attack people and to withstand stress.
And as mentioned the training takes place in public places including children’s playgrounds. Some videos show American XL bullys being riled and made more aggressive.
Rob Alleyne a trainer of 40 years’ experience believes that the animals are being trained ‘as weapons’. The front is something else: protection and sport.
He is approached by American XL bully owners who ask for advice on making their dogs more dangerous.
As is obvious and as has been said before, this is a human problem not a dog problem. The dogs are innocent victims like the people they attack.
The dogs are being exploited and abused. Feeding steroids harms health. And of course, they end up with a dangerous dog that is predisposed to attack someone, perhaps a child which inevitably leads to the destruction of the dog and the owner being prosecuted for the crime of being in charge of a dog dangerously out of control.
But the dog is firstly abused and then killed by the authorities if they do as trained. It’s animal abuse and a crime. Not only should this dog type be banned but the people involved in training them should be investigated and where appropriate prosecuted.
