Mum of girl attacked by XL Bully says ‘dangerous’ dog should be banned | UK News

The mum of a four-year-old attacked by an American XL Bully has called for the breed to be banned.

Luna Hobson was attacked by the animal in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, in April this year and was left with ‘quite significant injuries’.

Her mum, Amy, said the dog was locked upstairs at a friend’s house but it managed to escape.

‘He had opened the door and come down the stairs, so I put my hand out to stroke him – just as I always have done, never had a problem – then Luna put her left hand out to stroke him and say hello, and then he pushed her to the ground and then he started attacking her face,’ she told Sky News.

‘When he pushed her to the ground I thought he had pushed her by accident and he was licking her face. It was only when I heard her scream, I looked down and I actually saw the dog biting her.

‘That’s when I started getting the dog off her, I started hitting him, punching him, I kicked him, I twisted his ears, I did everything to get him off.’

She said Luna had to have surgery on the side of her face.

Amy called for XL Bully dogs to be banned, adding: ‘They are dangerous dogs. They are not safe around children at all.’

Her comments come after three people were bitten by an XL Bully dog in Birmingham over the weekend.

Ana Paun, 11, ran past the dog as it was being walked by its owner when she was attacked. Two men tried to intervene but they were also bitten and left with arm and shoulder injuries.

She told MailOnline it ‘just came at me out of nowhere’.

‘The dog stared at me and as I got closer it suddenly jumped up and bit my arm,’ Ana said.

‘It didn’t take its gaze off me and continued staring while it was biting.

‘It sort of locked on my arm and wouldn’t let go. I was screaming as loud as I could.’

She called for the dog to be euthanised and the owner to go to prison.

Following the attack, home secretary Suella Braverman started pushing for a ban on the American XL Bully breed.

She argued they are a ‘clear and lethal danger’, particularly to children, and said she has commissioned ‘urgent advice’ on the matter.

Adding dogs to the banned list is the responsibility of environment secretary Thérèse Coffey’s department, but there are concerns over the feasibility of adding the American Bully.

The dog – which belongs to a group in the pit bull terrier lineage – is not recognised as a specific breed by the Kennel Club, and it could be hard to define.

A campaign group called Bully Watch has warned ‘brutal’ attacks by the muscular breed have become ‘morbidly common’ in the UK.

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