DEADLY bully-type dogs are being advertised for sale online in the UK allowing anyone to buy them without checks.
Thousands of potentially-dangerous pets are up for grabs on sites such as Gumtree, Pets4Homes and Freeads – despite government plans to outlaw American XL bully dogs.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman plans to ban the breed after a series of dog attacks, including the vicious mauling of 11-year-old Ana Paun in Birmingham at the weekend.
But the volatile pets are being listed for sale in great numbers online, it has been revealed.
Online marketplace Freeads had more than 1,300 American bully dogs and puppies listed for sale, while there were 163 on Gumtree and almost 900 on Pets4Homes.
American bullys and their variants can fetch up to £6,000 per online sale, the Mirror reports.
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One bully pup was listed on Freeads with a description calling him already "a big heavy boy".
The owner, who said she wanted to sell the ten-month-old "urgently", wrote: "Unfortunately my boy wasn’t the right choice for my family.
"A big hyper dog and three young children. This isn’t what I want to do but it just isn’t fair on him or the kids right now."
Another offered her pocket bully on the same site for between £1,000 and £1,500, telling how it had a fight with her other dog.
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And a seller in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, offered up a 15-month-old American XL bully for £850, admitting it "can be vicious towards other dogs".
They added that the dog had attacked their sons aged 10 and any buyer would "need to be able to handle him as he is strong".
An American XL bully advertised for £500 by a seller in County Down, Northern Ireland, had the warning: "She may be a gentle giant but she is very strong."
And the owner of a male American XL bully in Redditch, Worcestershire, wrote: "Only reason I'm getting rid of him is because my daughter is scared of his size – he's too big and it's intimidating her, causing her anixety."
Animal behaviourist Zoe Willingham accused "unscrupulous" breeders of breeding the animals to be "aggressive" guard dogs.
She added: "Then they are falling into family homes as pets, which is how you end up with this situation of people trying to sell them on because they can’t control them."
Gumtree's head of trust and safety Joseph Rindsland told The Sun Online: "At Gumtree, nothing is more important to us than the safety of our users and the welfare of the animals listed on our site.
"We will always follow government advice and legislation.
"Should the Home Office move forward with a ban, our dedicated safety team would make sure that it was reflected in our posting policies.
"In the meantime, we would ask that all our users seriously consider the characteristics of a dog and their needs before agreeing to rehome a pet.
"We have comprehensive educational material about different breeds on our site, which we would strongly recommend users read carefully."
Dogs like that should be banned
Freeads also said they would "update our policies" if the law and government recommendations on American XL bullies changed.
They also said the firm "takes our commitment to the safe rehoming of pets seriously" and works with "responsible and vetted" breeders.
The Sun Online has contacted Freeads and Pets4Homes for further comment.
Brave Ana told yesterday how she feared she was going to die after being savaged by an XL bully dog in Bordesley Green, Birmingham.
Video footage showed the attack by the American XL bully that left her badly wounded and two men who tried to intervene in hospital.
Ms Braverman shared the clip on X/Twitter on Sunday and announced plans to ban the American XL bully breed.
And Ana, talking with her mum Monika’s permission, told The Sun Online: "Dogs like that should be banned.
"The owner should be in prison because he never did anything, he just let the dog bite everyone."
American XL bullys have been linked to nine deaths – including three children – since 2021.
The Home Secretary called XL bully dogs "a clear and lethal danger to our communities, particularly to children".
Her proposals have been backed by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who used to be head of the Crown Prosecution Service.
XL Bullys are bred from a blend of dogs, mainly the American pit bull terrier which was outlawed in Britain in 1991.
Campaign group Bully Watch UK has recorded 351 attacks by the breed in 2023 alone.
They say 43 per cent of all maulings by dogs come from large bullys, even though the breed comprises a tiny proportion of all UK dogs.
There were 22,000 dog attacks causing injury in England and Wales last year, up by a third since the 16,000 in 2018.
'WORK ON THE BACKYARD BREEDERS'
Jack Lis, ten, was killed by an eight-stone American bully called Beast in November 2021 in Caerphilly, south Wales.
Beast's owner Brandon Hayden, then 19, was jailed for four years in June last year and Amy Salter, then 29, for three years after they admitted being in charge of the out-of-control dog.
Jack's mother Emma Whitfield has now asked why the government did not act sooner to ban the breed.
She tweeted: "Where were you when my son was killed? Where were you when other innocent people were killed?
"If you're going to do something, please do it.
"Maybe you can do this and work on the backyard breeders and the thuggish owners ruining lives too."
Jonathan Hogg, a 37-year-old dad, was mauled to death in May by an American bully XL in Leigh, Greater Manchester.
Natasha Johnson, 28, was killed by dogs that same month while walking a pack – said to include her own American bully XL – in Caterham, Surrey.
Those tragedies came a month after an inquest was told Ian Symes, 34, died in Fareham, Hampshire, with "catastrophic" neck injuries after being mauled by a 52kg XL Bully dog bought on Snapchat.
And mum Katie Deere described last week sacrificing her own arm to save her daughter from an XL bully in Askern in South Yorkshire.
Some 22,000 dog attacks causing injuries were recorded last year in England and Wales, an increase of more than a third since there were 16,000 in 2018.
But animal charities have hit back against the suggestion of whole-breed bans while also demanding ministers reform the Dangerous Dogs Act brought in 32 years ago.
That already deems four breeds illegal – pitbull terriers, Japanese Tosas, Dogo Argentinos and Fila Brasileiros.
The Dog Control Coalition says putting dog breeds on the banned list could lead to more being destroyed based on their appearance.
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And they say existing laws do not address "root causes" of aggressive and dangerous behaviour.
Meanwhile, a dog bite expert insisted banning XL bullys wouldn't stop attacks and named five other breeds behind most maulings.
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