Campaigners lose XL bully High Court challenge

Sophie Coulthard previously said she was challenging the ban on the XL bully breed because it would "only affect responsible bully owners"

Campaigners have lost most of a High Court challenge over the XL bully ban in England and Wales.

Sophie Coulthard and campaign group Don't Ban Me, Licence Me took legal action against the Department for Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) over its decision to add the American XL bully breed to a banned list under the Dangerous Dogs Act.

The campaigners argued the ban was unlawful, claiming it was based on "unreliable" material, lacked a "proper" analysis of its impact and included "vague" standards.

Mrs Justice Beverley Lang dismissed most of the legal challenge, saying there was "sufficient evidence of an alarmingly high level of fatal attacks" by XL bullies or XL bullies crossbreeds.

The government ban, which took effect in full in February, made owning an XL bully dog illegal without an exemption. Breeding, selling, advertising, rehoming, abandoning and allowing an American bully XL dog to stray is also illegal.

But XL bully owner Ms Coulthard, from south-west London, previously said she was challenging the ban on the dog breed because it would "only affect responsible bully owners".

'Sufficient evidence of fatal attacks'

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."