Liam O'Dell
Dec 22, 2023
Fox - 26 Houston / VideoElephant
American XL bullies have been involved in a number of shocking news stories this year - from a school being forced to evacuate after a dog escaped its home, to a Sunderland man dying from his injuries and a woman falling from a flat window after she was attacked.
Now, a Welsh man has been bitten by the dog breed while having sex.
The news from Wales comes just weeks before a UK Government ban on selling, abandoning, breeding and giving away XL bullies - or walking them in public without a lead and muzzle - comes into force from 31 December.
The ban will then extend to owning an XL bully from 1 February next year, though owners can apply for an exemption certificate.
BBC News reported on Thursday (December 21) that 32-year-old Scott Thurston suffered bites to his chin and left forearm from his dog – a two-year-old dog named Hank - while being intimate with his partner Leanne Bell back in August.
Ms Bell was the one who called police to Mr Thurston’s home in Carmarthenshire, near Swansea, in the early hours of the morning, and told officers when they arrived on the scene: “I’ve got four kids. I love the dog, but I can’t have him around my kids.”
Mr Thurston, meanwhile, was trying to muzzle the dog in the garden.
Hank is now set to be destroyed following the incident, though an appeal can be made against the court order.
Frederick Lewendon, representing the police, said there was a “real potential for the incident to be far worse”, there were safeguarding concerns for local police, and that “next time it might not be a small bite to [Mr Thurston]; it might be to one of the children”.
Mr Thurston’s representative, Ian Birch, said there had been “no previous incidents” and that with “proper contingencies” in place the dog could come back home.
However, magistrates at Llanelli Magistrates Court agreed there were “significant safeguarding concerns” given the young children living in the household, and that it “could not be safely returned”.
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