An XL Bully owner has been cleared by a court after his pet attacked and killed another dog on a Blairgowrie housing estate.
Bonnie, a mixed-breed Spanish terrier, died from her injuries after being mauled by Bryan Laird’s dog in the town’s Newhill Way in February last year.
Perth’s Justice of the Peace Court heard how workmen hit the XL Bully with a fence post in a desperate attempt to force it to let go.
Mr Laird went on trial accused of allowing his dog to savage Bonnie.
The 31-year-old, of Landsdowne Square, Dundee, faced allegations he was in charge of the animal – whose name is unknown to prosecutors – and permitted it to seize the terrier by the body with its mouth, compress her body and refuse to let her go.
But he walked free from court this week after no fault was found and the Crown case against him collapsed.
Owners were ‘absolutely devastated’
Groundworker Ryan McIntosh told the trial he heard a commotion while working at a new-build property on Scotia Homes’ Hazelwood site on February 20 2023.
He ran into the street to see the XL Bully attacking the smaller dog, as a crowd of people looked on.
Mr McIntosh, 42, said: “I tried to hit it with a fence post.
“I smacked it with the stick but it kept bouncing off of it. It just wouldn’t let go.”
Another man tried to take a hold of the XL Bully’s mouth.
Asked by fiscal depute Duncan McKenzie if the dog eventually let go of the terrier, Mr McIntosh said: “Aye, but by then it was too late.”
He said Bonnie’s owner was “absolutely devastated”.
Mr McIntosh’s colleague Ryan Carr, 26, said he also went into the street after hearing “a lot of screaming and dogs barking”.
He said: “There was a crowd of people there.
“There was two dogs in the middle and people were trying to separate them.”
Mr Carr said: “The little dog was owned by one of the couples who had moved onto the site.”
He said he did not see where the XL Bully came from.
“All I know was it had this little dog in its mouth.
“I was left with blood on my hands from trying to pull them apart from each other.”
Site manager Steven Milne, 42, said he was tasked with investigating the incident.
He told the trial he did not see the attack but described the aftermath.
“People were asking us to clean up because there was a lot of blood on the road.
“I told them to wait for the police.”
He said he knew Mr Laird from previous construction jobs.
No case to answer
Solicitor Ross Donnelly, for Mr Laird, said it was not disputed his client was in charge of the XL Bully that day.
But he stressed there had been no proof Mr Laird permitted the animal to cause danger or injury, as per the charge.
He said: “There’s nothing suggesting this was caused by any fault on Mr Laird’s part.
“There has been no evidence to infer that there was an act or omission by my client that allowed this to happen.”
JP Allan Robertson agreed with Mr Donnelly’s “no case to answer” submission.
“In light of the evidence I have heard, I will uphold this submission,” he told Mr Laird.
“You are free to go.”
Last month, the first part of restrictions on American XL Bully-type dogs came into force in Scotland.
It is now illegal to have an XL Bully in public without a muzzle or a lead.
Efforts to create a rescue centre for the breed in Angus are under way.
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