The fork-tongued “devil dog” defenders
Last weekend a video circulated of a terrier dog attacking people in a busy street in Birmingham, one of the victims being a young girl. The dog was initially believed to be an American Bully XL breed, though it now appears that it was a cross of that breed and the Staffordshire bull terrier or “Staffy”, a very popular breed with ordinary dog owners though also with people seeking a weapon dog, or something to cross with a banned breed such as an American pit-bull terrier. However, the American Bully family of breeds, which originated as a cross between the pit-bull and the so-called American Staffordshire terrier or AmStaff (a variety of American pit-bull, banned in the UK for that reason) has been linked to a number of severe attacks on both humans and other dogs over the past few years, and the American Bully family of breeds (and the XL in more than half of those cases) account for more than 300 attacks this year alone, while the next most common breed to be involved, the Staffy, accounted for only around 75. A little bit of research reveals considerable problems with the breed, something the community in some cases refuses to face up to and in others appears to be actively misrepresenting.
Owning and breeding pit-bulls (which in the UK means the American pit-bull terrier; in the US the term is used more broadly to include the AmStaff and the Staffy) was banned in the UK in 1991 under the Dangerous Dogs Act, following a number of fatal attacks by these dogs on humans, including children. A number of major animal charities, including the Dogs Trust and the RSPCA, oppose “breed-specific legislation” (BSL) on the grounds that it requires the destruction of dogs with no history of violence and ignores problems such as poor training and breeding. There is pressure on the government to include the American Bully family in the list of dogs banned under the DDA, although it has been suggested that they are banned already as their history and genetics are overwhelmingly from the American pit-bull. Campaigners for a ban on the American Bully accuse the anti-BSL lobby of ignoring the rise of the breed and talking as if it were still 2019, before the pandemic led to an explosion of demand for dogs in general and this breed especially, and lockdown made training a lot more difficult.
A website called BullyWatch UK has traced the genetics of a number of the popular breeding bullies that are producing puppies for sale in the UK and found that a number of them are significantly inbred, with dogs strongly linked to violence and aggression being actively sought out for breeding as their genetics accentuates the ‘desirable’ characteristics, notably the excessive musculature. One dog, officially “UKC’s Most Wanted Kimbo” or just Kimbo (UKC stands for United Kennel Club), was bred from a brother-sister pairing in Louisiana by one Gustavo Castro; his offspring are responsible for numerous attacks on humans including several fatalities, and all the dogs in one litter he sired had to be put down because of their violence. His sire, Castro’s imaginatively named Bull23, was bred from a mating of half siblings. One of his grandsons, called Legion, was bred from a pairing of Kimbo’s own son and daughter from the same dam (mother). Breeders in fact boast of this inbreeding; one British breeder has a stud bully called Axel, and lists a number of its recent antecedents with “X3” or “X4” next to their names, the number referring to how often that dog appears in its lineage; in Kimbo’s case it’s four times, as all of its grandparents are descended from him, and his equally inbred grandson Legion also showing up four times. There’s an American breeder which boasts an African-American female kennel master who donates 10% of the kennel’s revenue to a church and talks the talk about how good its dogs are with kids, yet it still breeds dogs descended from Legion.
I have come across breeding kennels which boast that they are ethical breeders, that chip the dogs, take care of their health and choose only the “best bloodlines”, yet if you examine the pedigree of many of their breeding dogs, you find that they trace back quickly to the Kimbo/Legion bloodline. There are websites and YouTube videos on how to choose “the right” bully, or what mistakes to avoid when choosing or training your bully, yet “avoid an inbred dog” or “avoid these bloodlines” never features. There’s an article on the “best and most reliable” bully breeders in the UK, one of which they note has since shut down but they do not tell us why: its owner was banned from keeping dogs for cropping puppies’ ears. The videos claim that they were bred specifically somehow to eliminate aggressive traits, yet they were bred overwhelmingly from fighting dogs and the record of some of the individuals rather suggests that they haven’t been very successful in breeding those traits out — quite the opposite in fact. While many of the dogs have whimsical, girly or just doggy names, the names they give some of the dogs suggest that they revel in their breed’s aggressive reputation: Unstoppable Juggernaut, King Slayer, Odd Job (the name of a henchman to a baddie in some of the James Bond films), Straight Outta Compton, The Savage, Arnold the Terminator, Chucky (named after the baddie from the Child’s Play films). Quite a few are named after gangsters.
The media have obviously jumped on the story after a number of recent adverse events, including the Birmingham attack and an incident a couple of weeks ago where a bully escaped its owner’s property and raided a farm, killing several sheep, but I have not seen them ask the tough questions, which is important given that the dog media apparently refuses to do so. A particular issue with these dogs is that they are known to ‘flip’ and suddenly turn aggressive after having appeared to be placid companion dogs for a year or two, and because of their build, can inflict a great deal more damage than many other breeds of dog; they are also notorious for refusing to let go. The owners (or the breed’s defenders, if the victim was the owner or a member of their family) are often apt to blame the victims for running away, crying or just being there; they fail to understand that their dogs’ behaviour is the owner’s responsibility, not that of any passer-by who may not have been aware of the dog’s presence until it was too late.
It is about time the dishonesty and lack of responsibility of the bully community was exposed, and their protestations that these dogs are placid, ‘chill’ companions that are great with kids exposed for the guff it all is. It is not just about the ‘chav’ associations the breed has; it is the genetics, the inbreeding, and the breeding fraternity’s fondness for breeding from known problem dogs, producing more problem dogs that turn violent unexpectedly. It’s right that they be banned; in the long term, legislation will need to be introduced to curb irresponsible breeding practices, including intensive inbreeding that fosters traits that are dangerous or unhealthy, and importing the products into this country.
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