XL Bully dogs being rehomed in Scotland amid ban in England and Wales

As restrictions on XL Bully dogs have come into force down south, more Scottish families are taking them in.

As of the December 31, it's now illegal to breed, sell or walk the dogs without a lead or muzzle in public in England and Wales.

Owners will need to apply to register their current XL Bully dogs before the UK Government's full ban comes into force on February 1, where it will become a criminal offence to own one if it's unregistered.

Taylor, 21, from the Moray area has been travelling all across the UK to transport XL Bullies to Scotland.

With the help of a friend who has a horse box, they've driven as far as Southampton to pick up dogs.

She said: “My friend, she’s a licenced dog transporter as well as a horse transporter so, it just made sense to have someone who is actually trained in that area to be moving vulnerable dogs.

“We see these dogs that need homed and our first step is to find out about the dogs, if they’re ok with kids, people, cats, dogs, everything. Then we need to assess that dog and get proof that the information is correct, obviously we couldn’t rehouse a dog that isn’t ok with kids with someone that has children.

“We’ve had transport go all the way down as far as places like Southampton, Sheffield, London, there’s dogs all over the place. What we try to do is try to get as many dogs as we can up in one run.

“They’ve been homed from everywhere from Glasgow to, I’ve now got someone in Dingwall.”

There's currently no restrictions on the breed in Scotland, but First Minister Humza Yousaf said in September when the UK Government announced the ban that "no firm decision" had been made.

Taylor does not believe the ban will be effective and wishes ministers implemented a different solution such as owners applying for a licence.

She continued: "Negative people make negative dogs. They don’t care what kind of dogs they’ve got, they just want something big, powerful and looks scary.

"Those people will keep moving onto any other large breed to replace the one they’ve got because they don’t care about the dogs, it’s not a family dog, it’s not something that they love.

"I think the government is going to spend millions putting all of these healthy dogs down.”

As an increasing number of rehoming cases are coming north of the border, one Aberdeen woman has been warning of the dangers of these dogs getting into the wrong hands.

Hannah, who already has experience owning one of the animals, decided to take in 9-month-old Tank from Southampton.

However, she has shared her concerns of people adopting these types of dogs with no experience which she fears could encourage a ban in Scotland.

She said: “Everyone’s sending their dogs up here, you’ve got people that are rehoming dogs I’m sure that don’t have a clue what they’re doing, so that’s a risk to putting dog attacks higher.

"They need to stop, if you don’t have the correct resources – yeah, you’re trying to help but you could potentially be putting a dog in more danger.”

In the last few weeks, Hannah has been working with dog behaviourists and kennels to get professional advice on rehoming some of the dogs.

She says the situation has made her feel prepared if a ban was to be enforced in Scotland.

She continued: "People that are taking these dogs on need to know knowledge, they need to be firm, they need to know what they’re doing, they need to know exactly where it’s come from, what’s it’s background, has it ever been violent. You need to know all of that, especially when you’re in a house with children.

“My advice would be to those who don’t know what they’re doing with dogs and they don’t have any helpful resources in rescue - stop taking the dogs and trying to rehome them because you’re making the situation worse.

“It’s getting to the stage where professionals are actually wanting to step back and have nothing to do with the xl bully crisis because they’re getting a bad name.”

The SSPCA, who don't support the ban, say they haven't received an increase in the number of XL Bully dogs coming into their centres since restrictions began.

An SSPCA spokesperson said: “It was legal to move an XL Bully to Scotland before the 31st of December. However, since the restrictions have come into force, an owner in England or Wales bringing a dog to Scotland for the purpose of rehoming it would be committing an offence by giving it away.

“There is no need for a caring owner in England or Wales to move a dog to Scotland, as they have until January 31st to register their dogs and comply with the conditions for exemption.

“We fully support legislation to protect the public, and, as a responsible charity, will comply with whatever decision the Scottish Government makes.

“We believe that anyone found guilty of owning a dangerous dog that has been involved in an attack should be automatically banned for life from owning another dog.

“However, we are opposed to this ban on a specific dog type, which we believe is not the most effective way to protect the public. Instead, we believe any breed of dog can be potentially out of control and dangerous in the wrong hands.

“The Scottish SPCA wants to see an end to irresponsible ownership and low-welfare breeding practices.

“We are disappointed that the UK Government hasn’t taken the opportunity to completely overhaul the Dangerous Dogs Act."