Enforcing a ban on XL bully dogs is placing a “huge burden on policing” with millions of pounds spent on veterinary bills and kennelling, police chiefs have warned.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) said kennel spaces were “reaching capacity”, with costs “increasing by the day”.
It said veterinary bills and the cost of kennelling banned dog breeds had risen from £4m in 2018 to more than £11m between February and September 2024, adding it can cost about £1,000 a month to keep an XL bully in kennels.
The policing body said the figure is expected “to rise to as much as £25m” for the period from February 2024 to April 2025 – representing a predicted 500% increase in police costs from 2018.
Since February 2024, it has been a criminal offence to own an XL bully dog in England and Wales without an exemption certificate, meaning unregistered pets will be taken and owners possibly fined and prosecuted. Similar legislation came into effect in Scotland in August.
As well as the XL bully, other banned types of dog under section 1 of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 include the pit bull terrier, Japanese tosa, dogo Argentino and fila Brasileiro.
Chief constable Mark Hobrough, the NPCC’s lead for dangerous dogs, said the ban was placing “a huge burden on policing”.
The chief constable of Gwent police added: “We are facing a number of challenges in kennel capacity, resourcing and ever-mounting costs, and as of today we have not received any additional funding to account for this.
“We urgently need the government to support us in coping with the huge demand the ban has placed on our ever-stretched resources.”
Hobrough said conversations were “ongoing” with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs but there was no formal agreement “whereby any funding has come into any police force to account for these additional demand factors”.
Police forces seized 4,586 suspected section 1 banned dogs throughout England and Wales between February and September 2024.
There were 120 dog liaison officers across England and Wales before the ban, with 100 subsequently trained, and a further 40 to be trained, according to the NPCC.
Hobrough said this meant “in some areas established dog handlers have been called away from other policing duties.”
The NPCC said about £560,000 had been spent by police forces on staff overtime between February and September last year in relation to canines.
NPCC tactical lead superintendent Patrick O’Hara said he did not think all XL bullies were automatically dangerous, but they had the “propensity” to be by their “sheer size and power”.
O’Hara added: “In the right hands, with the right socialisation, with a really responsible owner, a lot of those dogs will never come to notice.”
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