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England & Wales XL Bully breed-type ban (Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 s.1(3); Certificate of Exemption from 1 Feb 2024; conformation height standard)

gb_xl_bully_breed_ban

gb-dangerous-dogs 214 tok en 2026-08-13

England & Wales XL Bully breed-type ban (Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 s.1(3); Certificate of Exemption from 1 Feb 2024; conformation height standard)

Verbatim C1 topic drawn from a first-hand UK Government (GOV.UK / DEFRA) source. Crown copyright, Open Government Licence v3.0; every claim below is a whitespace-normalised substring of the landed source file. No paraphrase.

Claims (verified C1 substrings of source_file)

  • From 1 February 2024, it is a criminal offence under Section 1(3) of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 to be in possession of an XL Bully breed type without a valid Certificate of Exemption.
  • The conformation standard has been developed by Defra in consultation with the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) dangerous dogs working group, local authorities, vets and other animal welfare experts.
  • The XL Bully breed type is a variant of the wider American Bully breed type.
  • Adult male from 20 inches (51cm) at the withers.
  • Adult female from 19 inches (48cm) at the withers.
  • From 1 February 2024, XL Bully breed types without a Certificate of Exemption, or those who breach the conditions of their Certificate of Exemption, can be seized under Section 5(1) of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991.
  • The cropping of a dog’s ears is an offence under the Animal Welfare Act 2006.

Sources

Official definition of an XL Bully dog (DEFRA)
Source document: Official definition of an XL Bully dog (DEFRA)
UK Government (GOV.UK / DEFRA)retrieved 2026-08-13

Verification file: pdf-raw/gov-uk-petwelfare/xl_bully.pdf