Most horrifying dog attacks – ‘faces torn off’ to ‘family pets turning evil’
Dog attacks are on the rise in the UK with the XL Bully breed increasingly in the news following an incident on Saturday (September 9).
West Midlands Police said a man, 60, was arrested on suspicion of possessing a dog dangerously out of control after footage showed an American XL Bully crossbreed on the loose in Birmingham. An 11-year-old girl and two men were injured.
It comes after a BBC investigation in March revealed the number of attacks recorded by police in England and Wales rose 34% between 2018 and 2022.
Here, the Daily Star takes a look at some of the most brutal dog attacks that led to deaths and horrifying injuries.
Man killed by XL Bully he was looking after for pal
Jonathan Hogg, 37, was mauled to death when an XL Bully turned on him in Leigh, Greater Manchester, earlier this year.
An inquest opening into his death heard how he was looking after it for a friend.
Police Coroners Officer Julie Ann Hyde told Bolton Coroners Court: "He entered the dogs' pen and one of the dogs attacked him, leaving bite wounds to his arm, leg and head."
A man, 24, was arrested on suspicion of being in charge of a dangerously out of control dog causing injury resulting in death and a woman, 22, was arrested on suspicion of money laundering. Both were bailed and investigations continue.
Mum warned daughter to get rid of XL Bully two weeks before mauling
Joanne Robinson, 43, was mauled to death at her home in Rotherham by her XL Bully Rocco in July 2022. Her partner Jamie Stead was left seriously injured after trying to fight it off her.
'Scared' victim in shocking XL Bully rampage footage speaks out over 'crazy' dog
Joanne's mother Dot revealed how Rocco had previously fought with their other dog Lola and that she'd told Joanne to get rid of the dog two weeks before the attack.
She told the Mirror: "I’ve never seen a dog as big as Rocco, he had started fighting with their other dog Lola and I begged her to get rid of one of them.
"I warned her what would happen but she adored that dog and said: ‘I can’t give up on him mum!’"
Girl, four, savaged by family pet
Alice Stones was just four when she was mauled to death by a family pet in Milton Keynes in January.
Moment out-of-control 'XL Bully' frantically attacks multiple people including girl, 11
The exact breed of the dog was not revealed but Thames Valley Police confirmed it was "not a banned breed". Unconfirmed reports suggested it was either an American bulldog or a pit bull-husky cross.
One local whose children went to school with Alice told The Sun: "We heard desperate screams. I heard, ‘She’s dead! She’s dead!'
"It sounded like Louise [Alice's mother] shouting. They were piercing screams.
"They’ll stay with me forever, haunt me."
Two Rottweilers snap and kill sleeping newborn
Two Rottweilers woke up and attacked five-week-old Mia Jade Riley at a family barbeque in New South Wales, Australia, earlier this year.
XL bully dogs tore apart 22 pregnant sheep and mauled 48 more before farmer opened fire
Despite guests doing their best to fight the dogs off, she tragically died in hospital.
Expert dog trainer Liarne Henry told news.com.au the attack could have been due to "sleep startle".
She explained: "I think what we could have been dealing here with what we call sleep startle in dogs, sometimes it’s also called sleep aggression, and that happens when the dogs are woken up suddenly or unexpectedly.
"Every dog breed has the potential to attack even their owner at that moment, because it’s a fearful reaction and it just takes them by surprise."
Horrifying facial disfigurations
Several people who were lucky enough to survive brutal dog attacks have been left permanently disfigured.
Daily Star Guide to fighting off an XL bully dog from gouged eyes to fingers up bum
Hairdresser Ashley Unger from Illinois, US, was cuddling a client's pit bull before it bit her nose off last year.
She told The Mirror: "The next thing I know, my nose is hanging off and I was holding my face together. It was the worst pain I'd ever been in."
Ryder Wells from North Carolina was only 21-months-old when two vicious Rottweilers pounced on him in 2014.
'Deadly' dog breed 270 times more likely to kill Brits than any other as fatalities rise
He had to undergo 50 surgeries to reconstruct his face after he lost the whole right side of his cheek, the bottom of his eyelid and 75% of his lip.
His mum Brittany sadly revealed her son has been called a "monster" in the playground.
And French woman Isabelle Dinoire underwent the world's first face transplant after her pet dog ripped off all her vital features in 2005.
The Labrador-retriever cross attacked her after she passed out from an overdose of sleeping pills.
A nose and mouth were taken from a brain-dead female donor and grafted onto Dinoire. Sadly, she died from cancer in 2016.
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