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6th October 2023
12:38pm BST
Just days after a dad-of-one was killed by an XL Bully in Sunderland, a woman has outraged social media users by insisting she will "fight to the end" before muzzling her dog.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced last month that the breed - a cross between an American Pit Bull and US Staffy - would be banned by the end of the year after a fatal attack in the West Midlands and the mauling of an 11-year-old in Birmingham. In the latest attack attributed to the breed, Ian Langley was killed Tuesday after bending down to protect his Patterdale terrier puppy from being mauled. A 44-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder.
Under government proposals to ban the Bully, owners of the breed will not see their dogs put down, the UK’s chief veterinary officer, Christine Middlemiss, explained last month. There will be an “amnesty”, where owners will have to register their dogs and take actions including using a muzzle in public.
In a series of TikTok videos, Daniella, has declared she won't be "muzzling my dog, and my dog's not going on a lead 24/7".
"I don't care. It's not happening. I'm not doing it."
Daniella, who also re-homes dogs, explained, "Firstly, there's no ban set in place yet anyway" and that she doesn't have to just "follow what people tell me I have to do."
"Never have, never will," she declared, announcing she "didn't do it with covid and nothing happened."
Daniella, who is one of many Bully owners to launch GoFundMe pages to protect the breed, says she doesn't understand why she should muzzle her dog, who is "not reactive and not aggressive".
Her dog like to play with sticks and footballs and plays with the same two dogs every morning, "biting and roughing around, that's how they play."
"She won't be able to do that anymore. Why? My dog's not aggressive. She doesn't need a muzzle on her."
Daniella also won't put her dog on the lead all the time, only "when she needs to be."
"When we get to the park - and I don't mean like a kids' playground area, I'm talking like country park, like fields, huge open space park, my dog's off the lead," she said.
"That's it. If you don't like dogs, you're scared of dogs and you're coming towards me, I'll grab my dog respectfully and hold her. If there's a massive group of kids or we're going to go past a play area, I'll grab the dog and put her on a lead.
"Unless we've had an interaction and you've told me it's ok for my dog to be around you."
Daniella said she understood the proposed rules are "better than us losing our dogs, but why should we all just roll over and let our dogs suffer?"
"I promise you now i wont go down without a fight," she declared.
In a follow-up video, Daniella conceded she would muzzle train her dog if it comes to either that or the dog being taken away from her.
A further video, The Sun reported, showed her walking her dog, "unmuzzled, unaggressive and unbothered".
"Guess what the owners of the bully dogs who killed people also said they weren’t aggressive before they killed," one person commented.
As well as fighting proposes rules around keeping XL Bullys, Daniella is helping re-home them and has reported done so for three dogs in recent weeks.
Related links:
Government calls for American XL bullys to be banned after girl, 11, mauled on street during rampage
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