American XL bully: Campaigners lose High Court challenge

In a judgement, Mrs Justice Lang said issues including defining the right types of dog and the human impacts of euthanasia had been considered by Defra.

“In my view, it was rational for the defendant to assess and act upon the available evidence on dog attacks and fatalities,” she continued.

She added “it was not necessary” for each reported dog attack or fatality to be interrogated by Defra for verification or to delay changing the law “until an official definition of the XL Bully was prepared”.

Mrs Justice Lang also said she had been shown data for 11 deaths between January 2020 and September 2023 at the hearing.

“Suffice it to say that, even excluding those cases where there was legitimate doubt as to whether an XL Bully was involved, there was sufficient evidence of an alarmingly high level of fatal attacks by XL bullies or XL bullies crossbreeds to justify the defendant’s concerns,” she said.

The campaigners did succeed on one point of their challenge, with the judge finding the government failed to comply with public sector equality rules in assessments in September and October 2023.

However, Mrs Justice Lang said she would not order any changes to be made following a “comprehensive” and lawful quality assessment in May 2024.

She said: “It is highly likely that the outcome for the claimants would not have been substantially different if the conduct complained of had not occurred.”