Inside Britain’s deadly dog attack epidemic fuelled by TikTok and boom in a ‘violent’ breed that many want banned
DOG show Crufts is a chance to celebrate all we love about our furry friends – but there was a dark shadow hanging over this year’s event.
Held last week in Birmingham, it came soon after a spate of dangerous dog attacks, with new figures showing incidents have risen by 34 per cent in England and Wales over the past five years.
Between 2001 and 2021, there was an average of 3.3 dog-related deaths each year.
Last year, that shot up to ten.
In January this year, four-year-old Alice Stones died after being attacked by a dog in her back garden in Milton Keynes, Bucks.
And just last month, Natasha Johnston, 28, was mauled to death by the dogs she was walking in Surrey.
The Covid lockdowns saw an explosion in the number of new dog owners and in pets being bought from unscrupulous breeders.
These animals are more likely to suffer from behavioural problems.
At the same time there has been a disturbing social media trend of filming stunts that involve winding up dogs in a dangerous way.
‘Horrific injuries’
So it was little surprise that this year’s Crufts, which was won on Sunday by a Lagotto Romagnolo named Orca — in a first for the species — chose to put extra emphasis on safety.
Bill Lambert, from show organiser The Kennel Club, said: “Crufts is really about dog ownership — the interaction between people and dogs.
“It seems likely that we have quite a lot of untrained, poorly socialised dogs out there that could possibly lead to an increase in incidents, and of course we have a lot of inexperienced new dog owners, too.
“It’s almost a perfect storm.”
Crufts ran special sessions on how to train and socialise dogs to develop a steady temperament.
This is something that experts say is lacking in dogs bought by inexperienced owners during the pandemic, or by people following dangerous advice from unqualified dog trainers on social media.
What is clear is that dogs are biting humans more than they used to.
There were 21,918 recorded dog attacks in 2022 compared with 16,294 in 2018.
One factor behind the increase is the rise in certain breeds, including the muscly American bully, which stems from the American pitbull terrier.
Six of the ten dog-related deaths in the UK last year were caused by bully or bully crosses.
These included the death of Shirley Patrick, 83.
Her daughter Gail Jones told The Sun: “Her injuries were horrific.
“She lost the tip of her nose and all of her top lip.
“The middle of her face was completely gone — there was just a stub left, like a skeleton.
“She lost an eye, lost an ear, had huge chunks out of her head, and at the back of her skull around her neck it was all down to the bone.
“Her arm was broken and she was covered in scratches.”
Shirley passed away on December 20 from pneumonia and sepsis 17 days into the battle to treat her injuries.
The great-great-grandmother, who underwent 18 operations while in a medically induced coma, was unaware of what had happened due to suffering from dementia.
Gail said: “I was told that’s what kept her alive for so long.
“They say if she knew, she would have died from shock.”
The attack happened in Caerphilly, near Cardiff, which has been dubbed the dog bite capital of the UK.
Just over a year before Shirley’s death — and just two streets away from where she lived — schoolboy Jack Lis, ten, was mauled to death at a friend’s home, again by an American bully.
In the wake of the attack on Shirley, a black American bully XL cross cane corso was seized by police and destroyed.
Four people were arrested on suspicion of being in charge of a dog dangerously out of control and were released on conditional bail.
Since the beginning of this year, a further 17 dogs have been seized in the town, all on suspicion of being illegal breeds.
Nine have since been released to their owners and the remaining are under investigation.
Pitbull terriers are one of four banned breeds in the UK, alongside the Japanese tosa, dogo Argentino and fila Brasileiro.
American bullies, which are not illegal, have soared in popularity due to their strength and muscular appearance.
They are certainly all the rage in Caerphilly.
Carpet fitter Jason, 52, says he no longer takes his Italian greyhound Lola, one, out at night in the town, fearing a potential attack.
“One chomp and she’s gone, isn’t she?” he told us. “Those XL bullies are terrible dogs, it must be a status thing.
“I don’t understand why you would want a dog like that. Don’t tell me you could leave that in a room with a kid and have no worries.”
Ella Phillips, 19, says her labrador Willow was attacked by an American bully XL last year.
The 19-year-old medical student said: “It was one of those classic big dogs, muscly and aggressive, and it went for Willow.
“It was scary. The dog wasn’t on a lead so the owner couldn’t control it.
‘Wrong lifestyle’
“I had to kick it off and I’m lucky it just walked off rather than going for me.”
But some experts say the focus should be on “deed not breed”, emphasising that any breed is capable of biting if handled badly.
Dr Sam Gaines, the RSPCA’s head of companion animals, said: “There have been calls to ban XL bullies but what we know from evidence around dog bites and fatalities is that breed is not a good predictor of risk.
“The danger of focusing on specific types of dog is that it’s misleading the public by saying, ‘Those types of dog are dangerous and any other dog is safe’.”
Instead, the RSPCA would like to see a dog licensing scheme, which would crack down on illegal breeding, and funding to train owners.
This is particularly important after the lockdown and the rise in new dog owners, with pets often from unscrupulous breeders.
These dogs are more likely to suffer from stress.
And when life returned to normal after restrictions were lifted, dogs often found their new routines upended and responded with anxiety.
Social media has made things worse, too, with bad advice about how to train dogs going viral as well as clips of dangerous stunts with dogs.
Dr John Tulloch, a vet and epidemiologist at Liverpool University, said he frequently sees videos on TikTok where dogs look stressed.
He added: “There was a recent trend, for example, of people staring into their dog’s eyes for as long as they possibly could.
“And in all of those videos, the dogs were looking really, really uncomfortable.
“And it would not have surprised me if any of those videos ended in someone being bitten.”
James McNally, a solicitor known as “Mr Dog Bite” because of the number of cases he takes on, agrees that any breed can be to blame.
His firm, Slee Blackwell Solicitors, gets half a dozen inquiries a day, often from people attacked by smaller dogs.
He said. “An awful lot of my clients are delivery drivers.
“Some have lost fingers when putting them through letterboxes and nine out of ten times it’s a terrier, it’s not always big dogs.”
So what can be done? Canine behaviourist Will Atherton says there are no quick fixes but that the key is making sure people only get dogs they are confident they can handle.
He says: “The problem is wrong hands, wrong training and wrong lifestyle.
“If you’re getting a big dog like an American bully, what is your rationale?
“Do you want to be intimidating or look cool? Because that’s not a good reason.”
The RSPCA is also urging research into the mental and physical well-being of dogs responsible for attacks, instead of putting them down immediately.
Dr Gaines said: “We need to understand why a dog attacks — and that means treating it like a suspect.
“Why did it act as it did? Was it mismanagement, abuse, breeding or health issues?
“Only with greater understanding can we really work to stop these sort of harrowing, horrendous attacks occurring with such frequency.”
What the law says
IT is against the law to let a dog be dangerously out of control anywhere, including in private homes.
This applies to all dogs, not just banned breeds.
Your dog is considered dangerously out of control if it injures someone or makes someone worried that it might injure them.
A court could also decide that your dog is dangerously out of control if it attacks an animal.
Penalties for breaking the law include an unlimited fine and a prison sentence of six months to 14 years.
You dog may be destroyed and you may also be banned from owning a dog in the future.
Four breeds of dog are banned in the UK.
These are pit bull terrier, Japanese tosa, dogo Argentino and fila Brasileiro.
The police or local council can confiscate a dog of these breeds even if it is not acting dangerously and there has been no complaint