A “ferocious” dog burst out of a home before killing a pug “in seconds”. Four-year-old Sultan, also known as Sully, was being walked by his owner’s mum in Lancashire when the horror unfolded.
Christine, mum of Sully’s owner Jo, noticed a young child opening the front door of a house as she walked by. In a matter of moments, a dog which she believed to be an XL Bully “smashed through the fence” before attacking Sully.
Paul Walker, a dog walker who regularly looked after Sully, says both Jo and Christine are “absolutely distraught”. He told Lancs Live: “Jo’s dogs; Penny and Sully, are like celebrities in the local dog world.
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“When I’m not booked in Jo’s mum Christine takes them for a potter around the block. Christine said as she walked past this house a young kid opened the front door and this dog came flying out.
“It smashed through the fence as if it wasn’t even there. It gripped Sully and he was dead within a matter of seconds.
“She said it was ferocious. Poor Sully was killed instantly. Christine is in her late 70s. For a little old lady to witness something of that ferocity must have been horrific.”
Christine had been taking Sully on a short walk around the block in the Chapels area of Darwen on Friday afternoon (May 31). As they walked along Chapels Brow, close to St James’ Primary School, the dog struck.
Hoddlesden-based Paul Walker, who started a dog sitting and walking business after quitting his estate agent job of 14 years, has been regularly walking Sully for around two years and was “distraught” to hear he had been killed. After receiving a text from Jo, telling him what had happened, Paul said he went “straight round”.
Paul says that Sully’s owner told him that the attacking dog was seized by police and who told her that it was due to be destroyed. “Jo [Sully’s owner] said to me ‘I can’t bear to see him’,” Paul, 49, added.
“She said the police were fantastic and they put Sully in a box and took him to the vet’s to be cremated.” Paul, who owns an XL Bully himself, believes that issues with the breed started during the Covid pandemic.
He says that, with up to 3.2 million households buying a pet during lockdown, XL Bullies were bred by “irresponsible people” who failed to ensure that the dogs were adequately socialised with other canines.
“Those puppies weren’t able to socialise or be trained and that’s why over the last year or so, as that generation of dogs reach adult maturity, we’ve been seeing so many attacks by XL Bullies,” Paul added.
American bullies are believed to have originated in the US in the late 1980s, when American pit bull terriers and American Staffordshire terriers were crossed. The XL can weigh more than nine stone and are strong enough to overpower an adult.
Since December 31, 2023, it has been illegal to sell, give away, abandon or breed from an XL Bully. They must be kept on a lead and muzzled in public after new legislation was brought in following a spate of dog attacks.
Owning an XL Bully without an exemption certificate was outlawed in February of this year. Older dogs must also be neutered by June 30, or the end of 2024 if the dog is younger than one and exempt dogs must be kept in a secure place.
A spokesperson for Lancashire Constabulary said: “We were called at shortly after 9.15am to a report that a dog believed to be an XL Bully had escaped through a hole in the fence of a property on Chapel’s Brow in Darwen and attacked another dog, sadly causing fatal injuries.
“Officers attended and the XL Bully was secured and later put down. Enquiries are ongoing.”
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