{"id":197380,"date":"2025-06-19T14:44:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T14:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/197380\/"},"modified":"2025-06-19T14:44:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T14:44:12","slug":"birmingham-council-issues-xl-bully-update-amid-real-risk-from-abandoned-dogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/197380\/","title":{"rendered":"Birmingham Council issues XL bully update amid \u2018real risk\u2019 from abandoned dogs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Birmingham City Councils says it continues to deal with the \u201crepercussions\u201d of the XL bully ban last year\"FileFile photo of an XL bully dog(Image: Jacob King\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n

Birmingham Council has said abandoned XL bully dogs present a \u201creal risk\u201d to its officers as it deals with the consequences of the breed\u2019s ban.<\/p>\n

In February last year, the national government<\/a> made it a criminal offence to own an XL bully without an exemption certificate following a spate of attacks.<\/p>\n

It describes the breed as a \u201clarge dog with a muscular body and blocky head\u201d and a \u201cpowerfully built individual\u201d.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Watch tense moment Birmingham council leader faces bins strike fury as man asks ‘would you’<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

More than a year later, Birmingham City Council<\/a> says it is still dealing with the \u201crepercussions\u201d of the XL bully ban as it continues to seize dogs which have been abandoned.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough the numbers of XL bully dogs seized as strays has reduced from 90 (in 2023\/24) to 30, almost all of these dogs have been abandoned as only one was subsequently claimed by its owner,\u201d it wrote in a regulation and enforcement report covering 2024\/25.<\/p>\n

It continued that some of these dogs, and other breeds, present a \u201creal risk\u201d to its officers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn most circumstances, due to health and safety concerns, they must be handled by two officers,\u201d the council said. \u201cIn September 2023, one of our officers was attacked by a pocket bully type dog.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe suffered significant injuries to her leg, which resulted in several hospital visits and two weeks off work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BirminghamBirmingham City Council House in Victoria Square(Image: Alexander Brock)<\/p>\n

In 2024\/25, the council\u2019s dog warden service responded to 2,930 requests for assistance and advice, regarding issues such as stray and lost dogs, welfare and general dog control issues.<\/p>\n

A total of 740 stray dogs were seized – of these, 694 were impounded at kennels while 46 were returned directly to their owners.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of the dogs we deal with are the larger bull breeds,\u201d the council said. \u201cIf these dogs are not trained and socialised from a young age, they can sometimes become unmanageable and some owners abandon them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The regulation and enforcement report will be considered by the licensing and public protection committee on Wednesday, June 25.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Birmingham City Councils says it continues to deal with the \u201crepercussions\u201d of the XL bully ban last yearFile…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,984,748,393,4884,285,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-197380","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-birmingham-city-council","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114710568706110457","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}