XL Bully owners in North Yorkshire call for ban to be reversed
Campaigners in North Yorkshire say all dog owners should have to apply for a license
A year on from the XL Bully ban and owners in North Yorkshire say it's sad to see people "petrified" of their animals.
Since February, it has been a criminal offence to own an XL bully dog in England and Wales without an exemption certificate, meaning unregistered pets will be taken and owners possibly fined and prosecuted.
Anita Tryc lives in Harrogate with her XL Ronnie says instead of the ban, all dog owners should have to have a license - as it's often smaller ones causing problems.
"They running like crazy off lead, barking at our big dogs, barking at each other, they said 'oh, it's just friendly.' It's not friendly. If you see my dogs in muzzle, you know it can't run away. It can't move. It can't play with your dog. Why you let your dog run into my dog like this?'
Anita the breed has been unfairly targeted and that means people are very frightened of her dog Ronnie. She tells us about one dog walk and a young girls reaction: "She was so petrified, she was nearly crying, passing my dogs, and she was all shaking. All then I stopped and I said 'listen, you don't have to be worried, he's the loveliest dog ever' and she just went with the panic in her eyes. She didn't even say a word.
Her comments come as the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) said kennel spaces were "reaching capacity", with costs "increasing by the day".
The policing body said veterinary bills and the cost of kennelling banned dog breeds had risen from £4 million in 2018 to more than £11 million between February and September 2024, adding it can cost around £1,000 a month to keep an XL bully in kennels.
The NPCC said the figure is expected "to rise to as much as £25 million" for the period from February 2024 to April 2025 - representing a predicted 500% increase in police costs from 2018.
As well as the XL bully, other banned types of dog under Section 1 of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 include the pit bull terrier, Japanese Tosa, dogo Argentino and fila Brasileiro.
Chief Constable Mark Hobrough, the NPCC's lead for dangerous dogs, said the ban was placing "a huge burden on policing".
The police officer added: "We are facing a number of challenges in kennel capacity, resourcing and ever-mounting costs, and as of today we have not received any additional funding to account for this.
"We urgently need the Government to support us in coping with the huge demand the ban has placed on our ever-stretched resources."
Mr Hobrough said conversations were "ongoing with Defra" but there was no formal agreement "whereby any funding has come into any police force to account for these additional demand factors".