logo
XL bully-style ‘muscle' dogs sold for discount after ban

XL bully-style ‘muscle' dogs sold for discount after ban

Yahoo05-02-2025

XL bully-style 'muscle' dogs are being sold for discounted prices following a government ban.
Eleven of the 14 'muscle' dog breeds such as American bullies, cane corsos and the presa canarios have seen their prices fall since the ban on XL bullies was announced in October 2023, according to data analysing millions of classified listings for pets.
There were fears that fans of the banned XL bully would switch to the cane corso, a mastiff which has been dubbed 'the XL on steroids'.
But buyers have also abandoned the Italian mastiff breed, which can weigh up to eight stone, and has become a favourite among Premier League footballers and TV personalities, said Pets4Homes.
Its latest Pet Industry Report, drawing on UK-wide data from more than seven million pet listings, said: 'There is no evidence that cane corsos are picking up supply or demand following [the] XL bully ban.'
Researchers found the average price for an XL bully fell by 9.5 per cent in the run-up to the ban, while the typical cost of a cane corso dropped by 11.4 per cent, from £818 to £725, between 2023 and last year.
While the cane corso, which is not a recognised pedigree dog breed in the UK and therefore ineligible for Kennel Club registration, has fallen from 19th to 26th place since 2023 in the UK's top 50 most popular dogs.
Overall, year on year, 86 per cent of muscle dog breeds including the American bully, cane corso, Staffordshire bull terrier, rottweiler, boxer and dogue de Bordeaux, have fallen in price.
The XL bully ban in England and Wales came as a result of then prime minister Rishi Sunak's promise to end a string of 'horrendous attacks' on Britons by the breed.
XL bullies have been blamed for at least 17 fatal attacks since 2020, including that of grandmother Esther Martin, 68, who was mauled by two of the dogs while visiting her grandson in Jaywick, Essex, in February last year – after the ban came into force.
It is now a criminal offence to own or possess an XL bully unless an owner has a valid certificate of exemption. The ban also outlaws selling or giving away the breed, breeding the animal, and having one in public without a lead or muzzle.
Axel Lagercrantz, Pets4Homes chief executive, said: 'Increased sales in muscle dogs like XL bullies arrived not long after lockdown, with a growth in dog purchases from inexperienced dog owners.
'Many buyers wrongly viewed having muscle dogs as a status symbol and often – most unwisely – believed that having such a dog would be good for personal security.
'Many feared that [after the ban] these buyers would simply turn to other similar dogs like the cane corso. That would have been unfortunate as these dogs need large open spaces, are extremely powerful and have some innate characteristics that need to be carefully trained and policed.'
Fans of the cane corso include Tottenham Hotspur star James Maddison and his England team-mate Marcus Rashford, currently on loan at Aston Villa from Manchester United.
Mr Lagercrantz added: 'We are glad to see that many potential buyers are now educated about having a powerful dog in a domestic space with children.
'With public opinion moving away from muscle dogs, this has also made people wary of encountering them in social spaces or walking their dogs near them, which has also reduced demand among buyers.
'We always advise consumers to thoroughly research any dog before purchase.
'Choosing a pet that is suitable to their home and actual lifestyle, not one which projects an image on social media.'
Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Eight arrests made after murder of man, 19
Eight arrests made after murder of man, 19

Yahoo

time2 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Eight arrests made after murder of man, 19

Eight people have now been arrested after a 19-year-old man was stabbed to death in a fight outside a shop in Bradford. Police were called to Loughrigg Street, off Newton Street in West Bowling, on Friday afternoon to reports of a group of men fighting with knives. The victim died at the scene and two other men, aged 24 and 27, received stab wounds, police said. Three of those arrested - one aged 18 and two aged 24 - are being questioned on suspicion of murder. Two 27-year-old men and two men, aged 24 and 26, have been arrested on suspicion of affray, and a 53-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender, West Yorkshire Police said. One of the 27-year-old men arrested on suspicion of affray received a stab wound to the chest and remains in a serious condition in hospital. The 24-year-old man arrested on suspicion of murder received a stab wound to the arm that is not considered life-threatening. The area remains cordoned off to allow forensic examination and specialist searches to take place. Senior investigating officer Det Ch Insp Dan Bates said: "Our investigation remains at an early stage, and we are continuing to carry out extensive enquiries to build up a complete picture of the circumstances in which this young man has tragically lost his life. "We are grateful to all those in the community who have come forward with information to assist the investigation and we continue to appeal for anyone who witnessed the incident or who has any relevant CCTV, mobile phone or dashcam footage to contact us. "We have specially trained officers working to support this young man's family at what is clearly a really difficult time for them. "We recognise that there will be an understandable level of shock and concern in the local community following this incident and we are continuing to work closely alongside Bradford District's Stronger Communities Team and the local neighbourhood policing team to reassure people and keep them informed of the progress of our investigation." The force added that it was not in a position to identify the man. Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North. Murder arrest after man dies in street fight West Yorkshire Police

'Bitcoin Family' hides crypto codes etched onto metal cards on four continents after recent kidnappings
'Bitcoin Family' hides crypto codes etched onto metal cards on four continents after recent kidnappings

CNBC

time2 hours ago

  • CNBC

'Bitcoin Family' hides crypto codes etched onto metal cards on four continents after recent kidnappings

A wave of high-profile kidnappings targeting cryptocurrency executives has rattled the industry — and prompted a quiet security revolution among some of its most visible evangelists. Didi Taihuttu, patriarch of the so-called "Bitcoin Family," said he overhauled the family's entire security setup after a string of threats. The Taihuttus — who sold everything they owned in 2017, from their house to their shoes, to go all-in on bitcoin when it was trading around $900 — have long lived on the outer edge of crypto ideology. They travel full-time with their three daughters and remain entirely unbanked. Over the past eight months, he said, the family ditched hardware wallets in favor of a hybrid system: Part analog, part digital, with seed phrases encrypted, split, and stored either through blockchain-based encryption services or hidden across four continents. "We have changed everything," Taihuttu told CNBC on a call from Phuket, Thailand. "Even if someone held me at gunpoint, I can't give them more than what's on my wallet on my phone. And that's not a lot." CNBC first reported on the family's unconventional storage system in 2022, when Taihuttu described hiding hardware wallets across multiple continents — in places ranging from rental apartments in Europe to self-storage units in South America. As physical attacks on crypto holders become more frequent, even they are rethinking their exposure. This week, Moroccan police arrested a 24-year-old suspected of orchestrating a series of brutal kidnappings targeting crypto executives. One victim, the father of a crypto millionaire, was allegedly held for days in a house south of Paris — and reportedly had a finger severed during the ordeal. In a separate case earlier this year, a co-founder of French wallet firm Ledger and his wife were abducted from their home in central France in a ransom scheme that also targeted another Ledger executive. Last month in New York, authorities said, a 28-year-old Italian tourist was kidnapped and tortured for 17 days in a Manhattan apartment by attackers trying to extract his bitcoin password — shocking him with wires, beating him with a gun, and strapping an Apple AirTag around his neck to track his movements. The common thread: The pursuit of crypto credentials that enable instant, irreversible transfers of virtual assets. "It is definitely frightening to see a lot of these kidnappings happen," said JP Richardson, CEO of crypto wallet company Exodus. He urged users to take security into their own hands by choosing self-custody, storing larger sums on hardware wallets, and — for those holding significant assets — exploring multi-signature wallets, a setup typically used by institutions. Richardson also recommended spreading funds across different wallet types and avoiding large balances in hot wallets to reduce risk without sacrificing flexibility. That rising sense of vulnerability is fueling a new demand for physical protection with insurance firms now racing to offer kidnap and ransom (K&R) policies tailored to crypto holders. But Taihuttu isn't waiting for corporate solutions. He's opted for complete decentralization — of not just his finances, but his personal risk profile. As the family prepares to return to Europe from Thailand, safety has become a constant topic of conversation. "We've been talking about it a lot as a family," Taihuttu said. "My kids read the news, too — especially that story in France, where the daughter of a CEO was almost kidnapped on the street." Now, he said, his daughters are asking difficult questions: What if someone tries to kidnap us? What's the plan? Though the girls carry only small amounts of crypto in their personal wallets, the family has decided to avoid France entirely. "We got a little bit famous in a niche market — but that niche is becoming a really big market now," Taihuttu said. "And I think we'll see more and more of these robberies. So yeah, we're definitely going to skip France." Even in Thailand, Taihuttu recently stopped posting travel updates and filming at home after receiving disturbing messages from strangers who claimed to have identified his location from YouTube vlogs. "We stayed in a very beautiful house for six months — then I started getting emails from people who figured out which house it was. They warned me to be careful, told me not to leave my kids alone," he said. "So we moved. And now we don't film anything at all." "It's a strange world at the moment," he said. "So we're taking our own precautions — and when it comes to wallets, we're now completely hardware wallet-less. We don't use any hardware wallets anymore." The family's new system involves splitting a single 24-word bitcoin seed phrase — the cryptographic key that unlocks access to their crypto holdings — into four sets of six words, each stored in a different geographic location. Some are kept digitally through blockchain-based encryption platforms, while others are etched by hand into fireproof steel plates using a hammer and letter punch, then hidden in physical locations across four continents. "Even if someone finds 18 of the 24 words, they can't do anything," Taihuttu explained. On top of that, he's added a layer of personal encryption, swapping out select words to throw off would-be attackers. The method is simple, but effective. "You only need to remember which ones you changed," he said. Part of the reason for ditching hardware wallets, Taihuttu said, was a growing mistrust of third-party devices. Concerns about backdoors and remote access features — including a controversial update by Ledger in 2023 — prompted the family to abandon physical hardware altogether in favor of encrypted paper and steel backups. While the family still holds some crypto in "hot" wallets — for daily spending or to run their algorithmic trading strategy — those funds are protected by multi-signature approvals, which require multiple parties to sign off before a transaction can be executed. The Taihuttus use Safe — formerly Gnosis Safe — for ether and other altcoins, and similarly layered setups for bitcoin stored on centralized platforms like Bybit. About 65% of the family's crypto is locked in cold storage across four continents — a decentralized system Taihuttu prefers to centralized vaults like the Swiss Alps bunker used by Coinbase-owned Xapo. Those facilities may offer physical protection and inheritance services, but Taihuttu said they require too much trust. "What happens if one of those companies goes bankrupt? Will I still have access?" he said. "You're putting your capital back in someone else's hands." Instead, Taihuttu holds his own keys — hidden across the globe. He can top up the wallets remotely with new deposits, but accessing them would require at least one international trip, depending on which fragments of the seed phrase are needed. The funds, he added, are intended as a long-term pension to be accessed only if bitcoin hits $1 million — a milestone he's targeting for 2033. The shift toward multiparty protections extends beyond just multi-signature. Multi-party computation, or MPC, is gaining traction as a more advanced security model. Instead of storing private keys in one place — a vulnerability known as a "single point of compromise" — MPC splits a key into encrypted shares distributed across multiple parties. Transactions can only go through when a threshold number of those parties approve, sharply reducing the risk of theft or unauthorized access. Multi-signature wallets require several parties to approve a transaction. MPC takes that further by cryptographically splitting the private key itself, ensuring that no single individual ever holds the full key — not even their own complete share. The shift comes amid renewed scrutiny of centralized crypto platforms like Coinbase, which recently disclosed a data breach affecting tens of thousands of customers. Taihuttu, for his part, says 80% of his trading now happens on decentralized exchanges like Apex — a peer-to-peer platform that allows users to set buy and sell orders without relinquishing custody of their funds, marking a return to crypto's original ethos. While he declined to reveal his total holdings, Taihuttu did share his goal for the current bull cycle: a $100 million net worth, with 60% still held in bitcoin. The rest is a mix of ether, layer-1 tokens like solana, link, sui, and a growing number of AI and education-focused startups — including his own platform offering blockchain and life-skills courses for kids. Lately, he's also considering stepping back from the spotlight. "It's really my passion to create content. It's really what I love to do every day," he said. "But if it's not safe anymore for my daughters ... I really need to think about them."

HGV driver caught rolling cigarette while on M5
HGV driver caught rolling cigarette while on M5

Yahoo

time2 hours ago

  • Yahoo

HGV driver caught rolling cigarette while on M5

A HGV driver who rolled a cigarette with no hands on the wheel was among 58 motorists caught in a police crackdown last month. Gloucestershire Police used an unmarked lorry to catch unsafe driving behaviour on the M5, leading to court summons and traffic offence reports. The HGV driver was stopped by officers after being filmed between junctions 8 and 14. Sgt Matt Firth said cutting the number of people killed or seriously injured on the county's roads "continues to be a priority" for the force. More news stories for Gloucestershire Listen to the latest news for Gloucestershire National Highways has three unmarked HGV cabs which it loans out to police forces across the country as part of Operation Tramline. The driver of a tow truck was pulled over and received a ban as officers found it had no brakes and an insecure load. Officers also pulled over two drivers towing vehicles while in the third lane of the motorway, which is not permitted according to the Highway Code. Drivers were also stopped for offences such as not wearing a seatbelt and using a mobile phone behind the wheel. Sgt Matt Firth from the force's roads policing unit said: "We will continue to run these operations to detect and deter those who choose to drive in this manner, remembering that any of us or our loved ones could be impacted by such behaviours whilst using the county's roads." Follow BBC Gloucestershire on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to us on email or via WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630. Children 'dodge cars' as car park remains closed Major motorway project 'unlocks' thousands of homes Police crackdown on dangerous parking as trial begins Gloucestershire Constabulary

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store