The XL bully ban is costing police forces millions of pounds in veterinary bills and kennelling, police chiefs have warned.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) said the ban on the breed was placing a “huge burden on policing”.
Kennel spaces are “reaching capacity” and costs are “increasing by the day”, the NPCC said.
It warned veterinary bills and the cost of kennelling were expected “to rise to as much as £25m” for the period between the introduction of the ban in February 2024 and April 2025.
It would be a 500% increase in police costs from 2018, when veterinary bills and kennelling cost £4m.
The NPCC said it can cost around £1,000 a month to keep an XL bully in kennels.
Following a string of attacks on people it has been a criminal offence to own an XL bully in England and Wales without an exemption certificate since February last year, with unregistered pets taken and their owners possibly fined and prosecuted.
Other banned types of dogs include the pit bull terrier, Japanese tosa, dogo Argentino and fila Brasileiro.
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‘A substantial cost’ to police
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‘Huge burden on policing’
The ban is placing “a huge burden on policing”, the NPCC’s lead for dangerous dogs Chief Constable Mark Hobrough said.
“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,” he added.
“We urgently need the government to support us in coping with the huge demand the ban has placed on our ever-stretched resources.”
Some 848 dogs euthanised
CC Hobrough said a “huge amount of dogs” had been reported to police over the last year.
Some 4,586 suspected banned dogs were seized by police forces throughout England and Wales between February and September 2024.
Of those, 848 were euthanised, at an estimated cost of £340,000.
The dogs had been surrendered to police by owners who had not complied with the ban, nor taken advantage of the compensation scheme.
