XL Bullies have been blamed for a rise in dog attacks
An elderly woman in the UK has died after being attacked by two dogs described as XL Bullies while visiting her 11-year-old grandson. As per BBC, Esther Martin was fatally injured inside a home in Jaywick, near Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, on Saturday afternoon.
Essex Police said its officers were called to Hillman Avenue shortly after 4 pm on Saturday where they found the woman seriously injured in a house. Officers believed she was attacked by two XL bully-type dogs inside the property. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
The police shot both the dogs and arrested a 39-year-old man on suspicion of dangerous dog offences. According to The Independent, the incident comes days after it became a criminal offence to own an XL Bully, with all existing dogs required to wear a muzzle and be kept on a lead.
Notably, the XL Bully breed is a variant of the wider American Bully breed type. UK government describes features of the breed including a “heavy, large and broad” head and a “blocky or slightly squared” muzzle.
The elderly woman’s daughter, Sonia Martin told the BBC that she believes her mother was attacked while following instructions from the owner who was not present and told her to distract the puppies with a broom if they began fighting.
”The owner had left my mum with the dogs and my nephew and gone off somewhere even though my mum had raised concerns about them. His direction to my mum as we understand it was that if the puppies were fighting she needed to put a broom in there and distract the puppies with the broom. Like run it over the floor and shake it to get the puppy’s attention so they stop fighting with each other and chase the broom. From our understanding, it was at this point my mum was attacked,” she said.
Post the attack, the woman’s grandson ran out of the house, screaming for help and some neighbours grabbed spades to try to “fight off” the dogs.
”We’d like to thank all the neighbours for coming and helping and trying to save my mum’s life. My concern was if my nephew hadn’t run out of the house what could have then happened to him? He’s 11,” Ms Martin added.
Meanwhile, Ashley Warren, the rapper who owned the dogs was released on bail today, and insisted they were ”not aggressive”.
In September 2023, UK PM Rishi Sunak announced the plan to outlaw the breed.