The home secretary is seeking "urgent advice" about banning American XL Bully dogs as footage shows one of the animals attacking an 11-year-old girl and a man in Birmingham. Suella Braverman has said the animals are a "clear and lethal" danger after the video of the attack in Bordesley Green emerged on the social media platform TikTok. West Midlands Police are investigating after two men, who were bitten and left with injuries to their shoulders and arms, were taken to hospital to be treated for their injuries after the incident on Saturday.
I can see an argument for the proposition that maybe we don’t need dogs that are big and powerful enough to injure or kill people.
But, I take claims about how a breed “is gentle” with an entire ocean of salt- individual dogs might be calm and well-trained or socialized, it’s the ones churned out of puppy mills to be sold at top dollar to shitty people who want a tough, scary dog that seem to be sketchy.
I’ve been around lots of well-adjusted big dogs that are just big hunks of love and slobbery affection, but really I hate seeing stories about how some dog that “is a good boy” mauled a child and if I had my druthers, dog owners would be required to carry liability insurance proportionate to the dog’s size or bite force or some factor correlating to its breed, and to the dog owner’s income or wealth. Oh, that would make big, dangerous dogs too expensive to own? Maybe they should be.
In the US most home insurance policies charge more or require and additional rider for some breeds of dog because of the increased liability. If you have a “dangerous breed” and don’t notify your insurance company, you might not have the liability insurance you thought you did.
I had only pits when we got our insurance and they were not an issue.
Not saying it doesn’t happen. When we rented we had to find places that would allow the breed.
Edit: breed was never an issue with renters insurance either.
It would also put an undue burden on people who need larger dogs for medical reasons…
It would be pretty easy to make an exception for those cases
I have a lab. She’s 30kg and the textbook “good girl” - a decent depiction of the breed standard.
I got her because her terperment was semi predicted in line with her breed, but I still have public liability insurance and don’t let her approach kids because she’s still a dog.