An XL Bully dog was seized by armed police after a pensioner was injured trying to separate two dogs who were fighting.
Gwent Police in Wales were alerted to a dog-on-dog attack at around 11.50am on April 8.
An 87-year-old, who intervened to stop the fighting, was injured as a result.
A spokeswoman for the force said: “Officers attended, along with specially trained firearms officers as a precaution. A large dog, believed to be an XL bully, was seized by officers. An 87-year-old man received injuries when trying to separate the dogs.”
An 87-year-old was injured after intervening to stop two dogs fighting on the B4245 in Portskewett, near Caldicot
Getty/Google Street View
The attack took place on the B4245 in Portskewett, near Caldicot.
Since February 1, it has been an offence to sell, abandon, give away, breed, or walk an unleashed and unmuzzled XL Bully dog in England and Wales, with Scotland imposing the same legislation on February 23.
Nearly 40,000 XL Bully dogs are thought to still be on Britain’s streets despite a ban on the breed being introduced.
According to the banned breeds register, some 38,424 dogs were granted the £92 exemption to avoid being put down.
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Estimates suggest there have been as many as 24 deaths linked to the breed since 2021.
Last week, footage circulated online of an out-of-control XL Bully causing chaos on the streets of London.
The attack, which took place across a stretch of York Road in Battersea, South London, saw the illegal dog attack several people, sending four men to hospital.
Two people were arrested on suspicion of being the owner/person in charge of a dog dangerously out of control - and the XL Bully was subsequently shot dead by police on nearby Home Road.
In the same week, an XL Bully became the first of its kind to receive an order to be destroyed since the new regulations came into effect.
A grandmother rescued Bleu the dog a year ago after she found it wandering around the sand dunes in Formby. She nursed it back to health, but when the Government introduced new legislation outlawing the breed, she failed to declare the dog in time.
Since February 1, it has been an offence to sell, abandon, give away, breed, or walk an unleashed and unmuzzled XL Bully dog in England and Wales, with Scotland imposing the same legislation on February 23
PAJosephine Fitzpatrick, 41, who lives in Waterloo, Merseyside, was visited by police for another matter in February, when officers found Bleu hidden in another room.
Fitzpatrick was charged under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, while Bleu was taken by authorities and housed in kennels.
The 41-year-old pleaded guilty to possessing a fighting dog under the Act earlier this week - a court subsequently ordered Bleu to be destroyed.
The court heard how Fitzpatrick could not afford to register the XL Bully for an ownership exemption in line with new rules, as she relies on monthly benefit payments of £300.
Fitzpatrick's lawyer, Marcella Salter, said the grandmother had looked after the dog to good health and detailed how she thought the dog was dead when she found it on the dunes at Formby.
Salter said: “I appreciate that Blue is an XL Bully... She should have registered the dog with the vet and had him checked which is what the Government allows for. Unfortunately, finances did not prevail. She simply did not have the money to pay for the dog to become exempt, for the insurance… she says she is thoroughly ashamed that she had to come to court.”
