Two hospitalised with serious injuries after suspected XL Bully attack
A man and a woman have been taken to hospital with serious injuries after a suspected American XL bully attack.
Nottinghamshire Police were called to the Hickling Court area of Mansfield just after 11pm on Friday following reports that a large dog had attacked people and was on the loose.
The woman is believed to have fallen from the window of a flat where the attack began, police said.
A 38-year-old man and a 24-year-old woman have since been arrested.
The dog, thought to be an XL bully, was seized from a nearby house and taken to secure kennels.
The injuries sustained by the victims are not thought to be life-threatening, police said.
It comes just weeks after the Government announced a ban on the American XL bully following a spate of attacks on members of the public. The ban will come into force on February 1 next year.
From that date it will be illegal to own an XL bully that is not registered on the index.
The dogs must also be microchipped and neutered, with animals under a year old given until the end of 2024 to be neutered while older dogs must be neutered by June.
XL bully owners who fail to register their dogs on the index face a criminal record and an unlimited fine. Their dog could also be seized.
In September, 52-year-old Ian Price, from Staffordshire, died in hospital after being attacked by two American XL bullies, while, last November, Jack Lis, 10, was killed by one of the dogs at a friend’s house in South Wales.
The dog is a variant of the American bully dog, which can come in a variety of sizes, with XL bully dogs bred to be particularly large.
XL bully breeders have also been advised to stop mating the dogs ahead of the ban.