Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
XL BULLIES MAY be abandoned by ‘anxious’ owners in the wild as a nationwide ban on the restricted breed comes into effect this morning, the Dublin SPCA has warned.
New legislation was introduced in October by former Rural and Community Development Minister Heather Humphreys, which made it illegal to import, breed, rehome or resell XL Bully dogs.
The law means that XL Bullies can no longer legally be kept by their owners as of today, unless they have a certificate of exemption issued by the local authority in which the XL Bully resides.
The new certificates will mean that an XL Bully can be kept by its owner until the natural end of the dog’s life – though the certificate can only be obtained if the dog is licensed, neutered and microchipped.
Dog owners found in breach of the certificate will have their XL Bully seized by dog wardens and gardaí, and may also face fines of up to €2,500 and three months in prison.
The strict new ownership rules were introduced to “protect public safety” following a number of attacks by XL Bully type dogs, the Department of Rural and Community Development said.
Legislation came into effect last year shortly after the death of 23-year-old Nicole Morey, who was mauled to death by her dogs (one of which was an XL Bully) in June.
Several animal welfare organisations including the ISPCA, Dogs Trust Ireland, Irish Blue Cross and MADRA have spoken out against the ban, arguing that such drastic measures “fail to reduce dog bite incidents” – instead presenting “significant challenges” for dog owners and the animal welfare sector.
The law does not yet pertain to animal welfare organisations, as the High Court issued a last-minute block on Friday to part of the legislation that would allow agents for the Minister for Rural Development to seize or euthanise XL Bully dogs in the care of animal welfare groups.
Dublin-based animal welfare group DSPCA has said that many XL Bullies in Ireland may now face possible euthanasia, as a number of Council-run dog pounds can legally put down the unregistered animals.
Pat Watt, Chief Executive of the DSPCA, told The Journal that the ban presents a “terrible dilemma for dog owners”.
“We’ve had some people attempting to abandon their dogs with us, and on the surface that looks like a terribly cruel thing to do,” Watt said.
“But the in the minds of many pet owners, either they put the dog into the hands of an animal charity shelter by surrendering it, or the dog is seized off them and is taken to the pound to be euthanised”.
Watt added that many dog pounds across the country, administered by local authorities, “don’t have space for more dogs”.
Under the Control of Dogs Act, dogs who have completed a mandatory five-day stay in Council-run dog pounds can be euthanised to “create space” if the pound cannot rehome them or find a rescue with space to take them.
The DSPCA and several other animal dog charities have warned that the dog breed may be “abandoned en masse” at charity shelters and in the wild, leading to further risks for the animals.
He explained that the DSPCA and several other animal welfare charities had worked hard in recent weeks to rehome XL Bullies to Poland and the Czech Republic before the ban came into force.
The ban now means that animal welfare charities such as the DSPCA are no longer permitted to rehome or export the dog breed.
Watt said that there has been a “sharp rise” in the surrendering of other restricted dog breeds to the DPSCA in recent months, including American pitbulls and English bulldogs.
“Just last week, we had somebody attempting to tie up a dog and abandon it outside our shelter in broad daylight,” Watt said.
“People are panicking in a significant way – my worry is that if those dogs being surrendered and abandoned in the wild aren’t found, then they are going to immediately suffer.
“The stigma surrounding the ban is creating a massive, widespread problem out there”.
Watt explained that many owners of cross-bred or bully breed dogs have been left confused by the new restrictions, saying that the legislation is “loosely defined”.
XL Bully dogs are a variant of the American Bully breed. They are usually bigger in height and body shape than other American Bully breed types.
Ahead of the ban, the Department of Rural and Community Development published a physical confirmation standard which owners can use to check if their dog meets the physical characteristics of an XL Bully dog.
Watt argued that these descriptions are “up for interpretation”.
“When you look at the number of measurements you have to complete to try and determine whether this dog is an XL Bully or not, it’s complicated for people out there to understand,” Watt said.
“What the legislation has done is it has contaminated the perception of other bull breeds and cross breeds, and they’re now starting to be surrendered and abandoned because owners are fearful as to what’s going to happen to the dog.
“It’s creating a real misperception that a number of other breeds are and cross breeds are inherently dangerous, which is just not true.”
Watt said that the stigma around a number of dog breeds is due to “cruelty and neglect”.
“They’re tremendous dogs of a great nature, and they’re very gentle – this characterization that they’re capable of of attacking owners and individuals is not helping anybody,” Watt said.
“The main thing that impacts their likeliness or urge to attack are aspects like cruelty, neglect and a lack of responsible pet ownership or a lack of education”.
Watt argued that the ban was distracting from “more urgent and needed law enforcement” on unsafe and illegal dog breeding.
“All this is going to do is going to drive illegal breeding practices underground, and we already have evidence that there are new hybrid breeds emerging to replace the XL bullies,” Watt said.
“The ban won’t stop the practice unless there is proper enforcement.”
More information on the XL Bully ban can be found here.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
I’m still waiting for refunds from aer lingus from March.
@Motherofthree: correct. It’s not just Ryanair
@Motherofthree: same here
@Motherofthree: Waiting since the beginning of April for my Ryanair refund but Aer Lingus seem to be getting a free pass for a similar offence against their customers.
@Football in the Groin: ya I’m the same, been waiting since the beginning of April, and all I’m wanting is the voucher as I know I have to travel with them again. Good to know I’m not the only one waiting. Has anyone actually heard anything from aerlingus since original contact made?.
@Motherofthree: Ian still waiting since April €1300 rang them a number of time on hold for 27 mins to be told its be locked into. Not never told when iam getting it.its tomevto drive out to the head office in dublin airport.
@Motherofthree: and KLM have been worse than useless
@Motherofthree: http://www.flightrights.ie
If you can, open a transaction dispute with your bank. I highlighted how I never received the goods I paid for and how Ryanair failed to refund multiple times in the times they quoted. It took just under 3 weeks, but much faster than waiting for Ryanair.
@Richard: Was this with a credit card? I paid by debit card. Thanks
@Aoife: same here. Might try with my bank and see what they say. Great idea Richard!
@Aoife: I paid via debt card and chargeback was successful
@Siobhan Rosemary: thanks Siobhan! I’ll try that.
@Richard: just pray that you dont use the same bank as Ryanair. You can already see the conversion, “you start this charge back stuff and I will move my billions”.
@Aoife: always use a credit card if you have one. Covers you for lots of things.
@Richard: I’ve done this asked for a charge back on my card, as Ryanair are in Breach of the contract we had, by failing to deliver on their part, I asked for a charge back and got it within 2 weeks, and just so people are aware, this is not fraud as previously stated by a Ryanair employee, you are entitled to your refund and it’s faster with your credit card company or bank, and you can’t get black listed by Ryanair either.
@Richard: I received chargeback from BOI for 6 flights. I paid by credit card. Took about 2 weeks to get the refund.
@Richard: I rang the Credit Card company and after 30 mins of being fobbed off, they agreed to open a dispute against Ryan air.
There’s one very simple problem here that people seem to be missing : No enforcement of the Law by Authorities and the Airline Regulators! Simples
@Nigel o’Neill: exactly Nigel! And the other thing I was thinking when reading this article. Why is there nothing like Which? in Ireland to conduct research on the Irish consumer base. Why are there no experts on IrelandAM every week guiding Irish consumers on what to do? Where is the outrage over this? So frustrating!
@Vikki Brennan: definitely Vikki. Bottom line is the law should be doing its job for you though
I wonder will it take Ryanair 3 to 6 months to process flight bookings and take the money from your credit card….
@Martin Smith:
Think it’s time the EU instigated a form of escrow service for transactions like this.
Your money is held by a third party and only paid once you got the service.
Aer Lingus aren’t any better. I’ve been waiting t 10 weeks for my refund. Emails go unanswered.
Michael is waiting for the pound to drop in value before he does any refunds .Cute lad.
I’m still waiting on my voucher from Aer Lingus as I believe are many others.
O Leary the hypocrite, all about speeding up the opening up of the country but won’t pay people the money he owes them. Greedy out.
Ah comon, they’ve only 4,000,000,000+ in cash reserves give poor auld Ryanair a break (note: sarcasm, in case not noticed)
Backlog could be largely wiped out by one stroke of Ryanair Mick’s very sharp pencil by offering a voucher for already cancelled flight plus a 50%-off voucher for a second flight at a future date of his firm’s choosing.
With its excellent yield management business model, this shouldn’t be too taxing to plan for the nation’s largest airline.
To get a refund download chargeback form from your bank website,follow instructions and sit back and wait approx 2-3weeks for money to arrive back in your account. It worked for me!! Happy out. Works for debit card also.
You can raise a chargeback with your bank/card provider if the airline is dragging thier feet when it comes to processing a refund , gather all the emails pertaining to your booking and contact your bank requesting a charge-back for the transaction.
its a simple process , the merchant has a number of days to revert back to the bank/card provder in most cases you will get your money back .
In fairness it’s a huge increase in refund transactions to process on a team that could possibly be smaller at present.
@Podge: stop talking real around here!
well there’s a suprize wake up people you are using this kip of an air line and expect to be treated better , the man is a loon and expects to start flying in july not a cold day in hell would I fly with them you get what you pay for
Liz
@Elizabeth Eccles: Aer Lingus no better on refunds
@Elizabeth Eccles: It’s all airlines. The travel industry is short on cash if they refund everyone at the same time they will go bust so it will take months to refund everyone.
@Elizabeth Eccles: actually it’s not a kip of an airline. Its cheap n cheerful. I have to travel frequently to England and I couldn’t do it as often with any other airline. I’m damn grateful for it.
Refunds please.
They gave people the option to change flights. I couldn’t change mine as I had checked in. Spent 4 days trying to get through to them over the home, social, email. I’d better get my money back. Absolute disgrace
I’m shocked that Michael O Leary never mentioned this yesterday when he was huffing and puffing about quarantine measures etc… it’s not like him to ignore the elephant in the room and launch into a tirade in order to distract the nation…. not one bit like him at all….maybe he has jet lag or something! ahem!
I’m still waiting a refund from ryanair after flight was cancelled. Then received an email saying that I can get a voucher. Have not put in for a voucher yet. Also i cancelled an aer lingus flight. And am still waiting for a refund.
If affected you should submit a complaint to http://www.Flightrights.ie the Aviation Regulator. I did 2 weeks ago waiting since March 15th for reply to refund request for flight not cancelled to USA but we could not travel due to travel ban. Simple process. Refund received within 3 days of Regulator contacting Aer Lingus on our behalf. Complaint made under denied boarding heading. Don’t wait submit a complaint.
Air lingus are the same.waiting refund of €1300 since april, ring them and be put on hold for 30mins .Not even send a email to say the flight was cancelled, but a load of emails up to the day before the cancellation of the flight saying we could take a voucher.
You mean … people did get refunds ???
@pomerleau: I did but only after contacting the regulator
I’d have preferred a voucher but strangely there was no such option .
@Isabel Oliveira: when you apply for the refund you’ll get another email offering a voucher.
I’m still waiting on Refund from Aer Lingus, they will not even reply to about 10 emails I sent them.
For Irish consumers where is the Irish Airline Authority, why aren’t they enforcing the law, why inst it too news on RTE, TG4 and others. Total silence from the Irish government to boot.
Seriously, can everyone just cop on. The airlines will all fail and go out of business if they are forced to pay out straight away on cancelled flights. Then you will lose everything. For God’s sake be patient, you will get it back when they get back to normal. And sure most of you will fly again anyway, so vouchers will do. This insistance on immediate refunds is childish and only causing you stress.
@Patricia O’Reilly: I wonder if you where waiting 3 months for a refund, for a service you payed €1300 and never got would you be so flippant.
@Patricia O’Reilly: ok Patricia you think waiting 3 months for a €2k refund for flights to the USA is reasonable during a time when household incomes have drastically reduced. Never mind the fact that consumer law dictates the refunds are due.
Got my March refunds from Ryanair in bank today
Got my March refunds from Ryanair in bank today
have your say