The dangerous dog crackdown shouldn’t stop with banning Bully XLs

There isn’t much you can do in modern Britain without encountering some licensing scheme, but one area of life which really does need regulating remains free of any kind of bureaucratic control. You can, for now, go out and buy an American Bully XL puppy with no need for any kind of training – for you or the dog – before letting it loose on the High Street where it might take a fancy to shins of a passer-by and, quite possibly go onto kill them. Should that happen, you may well find yourself in the magistrates’ court, but why not some kind of pre-emptive system to keep violent dogs off the streets – and out of homes – before they kill?

True, Rishi Sunak has suggested today that the government might ban Bully XLs as a breed by the end of the year, but why the shyness to take more comprehensive action on other dangerous dogs? Any screwed-up dog above the size of a chihuahua is a threat to the public as much as any ill-maintained motor vehicle or badly-built block of flats.