A British family is mourning the death of an 84-year-old father, grandfather and great grandfather who was killed by a banned breed of dog in an attack that left him battling serious injuries for five weeks. John McColl was attacked by an American XL bully, a dog breed that was banned in the U.K. only a year ago after a series of deadly attacks.
According to CBS News’ partner network BBC News, McColl was walking to his home in the county of Cheshire in central England on Feb. 24 when the dog chased him into a front yard, where he was mauled. Responding police officers shot and killed the dog.
McColl “fought hard,” but died in a regional hospital on March 30 surrounded by loved ones, his family said in a statement shared by the Cheshire Police.
“As a family we are absolutely devastated with what has happened to John,” they said. “He fought hard for the last five weeks but he decided he could not fight any more and passed away on Sunday.”
“Our dad, grandad and great grandad will always be loved by us all and sadly missed by each and every one of us,” the family said, adding their thanks to the emergency services who helped McColl at the scene, along with local residents “who also came to his aide and the staff at Aintree and Whiston hospitals for all that they did for him and us as a family.”
A 30-year-old local man, Sean Garner, was arrested two days after the attack and has been charged with owning a dog “dangerously out of control causing serious injury,” in addition to possession of a fighting dog, the police said.
According to the BBC, the Cheshire Police have been considering additional charges since McColl’s death.
A ban on XL bully dogs came into effect in February 2024 in England and Wales following a spate of violent attacks, obligating any existing owners to apply for an exemption, which requires proof of neutering and liability insurance, to keep their pets. Under the law, XL bullies must be muzzled and kept on a leash in public. At the time the ban came into effect, more than 35,000 dogs in the U.K. were already registered for XL bully exemptions.
Before 2021, there were only about three fatal dog attacks per year in the U.K., but since that year there have been at least two dozen, many of them involving XL bullies, according to BBC News.
“These dogs aren’t cared for by the breeders — they just want money — so from the greed at the start (and) irresponsible ownership in the middle, we’ve got children dying,” Emma Whitfield, whose 10-year-old son was killed by an XL bully in 2021, said before the ban was enacted. “My youngest son started comprehensive school last week, and he should have had his big brother showing him the ropes, but he’s had to do it on his own. We’re missing a massive piece of our family.”
An American bully is not identified by the U.K. Kennel Club as a specific dog breed. Rather, it is a type of bulldog that is the result of mixing several dog breeds, including Pit Bulls, American Bulldogs and English Bulldogs.
The U.K. government published guidance to help identify the dogs in which it describes them as having “a muscular body and blocky head, suggesting great strength and power for [their] size.”
Before the addition of American XL bullies, the selling, owning, breeding and abandoning of four other dog breeds was and remains illegal in the U.K.: the Pit bull terrier, the Dogo Argentino, the Japanese Tosa and the Fila Brasileiro.
If someone has a dog that is one of these breeds, it can be taken by police, even if there have been no complaints against it.
