A Dundee man has been banned from keeping dogs for five years after his XL Bully bit and injured a woman.
Peter Fyfe’s powerful pet also grabbed a Shih tzu and tossed it around like a rag doll in a second attack just a few days later.
Dundee Sheriff Court heard how Fyfe’s dog mauled the defenceless Shih tzu while its 83-year-old owner watched on helplessly.
The out-of-control bulldog-type animal grabbed the smaller dog by the neck and locked it in its jaws as it repeatedly shook it around.
That incident happened just over a week after Amanda Williams was bitten repeatedly as she tried to fend off the dog from another attack.
Fyfe, 48, of Marryat Terrace, admitted that on June 10 last year he was in charge of an XL Bully which was dangerously out of control.
He admitted his dog repeatedly bit Amanda Williams on the body to her injury after lunging at her dog in Victoria Road, Dundee.
Fyfe also admitted that on June 19, in Caird Avenue, he was in charge of the dog when it was again dangerously out of control.
On that occasion his dog lunged at a Shih tzu being walked by Eunice Gow, 83, seized it by the neck, clamped its jaws around it and shook it repeatedly and injured it.
Sheriff George Way placed Fyfe on a curfew for 105 days and banned him from having “the care or custody of any dog” for a period of five years.
Notorious breed
The American Bully is a modern breed of dog, with the XL being the largest at up to 200 pounds.
The American Bully Kennel Club describes it as giving the “impression of great strength for its size.”
Breeders have acknowledged American Bully dogs can be very dangerous if improperly raised or bred and they have been responsible for a number of fatal attacks in the United Kingdom.
On July 16 2022, Joanne Robinson from Rotherham, England, was killed in her own home when she was attacked by her pet American Bully XL.
The dog, one of a pair, was reputed to weigh 196 lbs.
Less than a month later Ian Symes, an experienced and professional dog-walker, was mauled to death while walking through a park in Fareham, Hampshire.
As many as six fatal dog attacks in the UK since 2020 have listed the American Bully breed as being responsible, with victims ranging in age from 17 months to 62-years-old.
