"My bull terrier could kill a man in minutes"

This made me really angry today

" My bull terrier could kill a man in minutes

THE five-stone bull terrier hangs by its teeth from a thick tree branch, its vice-like jaws foaming with blood and spit.

The powerful beast lets out stomach-churning growls as it thrashes wildly from side to side, tearing chunks out of the tough wood.

It has been whipped into a frenzy by its hoodie-wearing owner, who goads the dog with shouts and taunts.

It is terrifying to watch.

When the aggressive mutt is back on the ground, straining to break free from its choke chain, the branch is stained red with its blood.

The thought of a dog with this power and aggression turning on someone, especially a child, is sickening.

The canine acrobatics are not for show - it is a technique used by street gangs to strengthen the jaws of their vicious dogs, making them as strong as possible for an attack.

These "status" dogs are now widely used on Britain's estates, preferred by drug dealers to guns and knives as a form of protection.

Our gang contact, who refused to be identified and calls himself Chris, chillingly explains: "These dogs are as lethal as a loaded gun.

"This is my gun, except it doesn't come with a seven years minimum jail sentence."

While this is true, Home Secretary Alan Johnson this week announced plans to crack down on so-called "devil" dogs.

The proposals include compulsory insurance for all dogs, which would cover victim compensation if they attack, and the issuing of "Dogbo" orders - a canine Asbo - which would force owners to muzzle or neuter their beasts.

But the gang members we spoke to, who live on a tough estate in Plumstead south-east London, laughed at the measures which could force law-abiding dog owners to fork out £500 for insurance.

Chris, 26, says: "It won't make a blind bit of difference. Can you really see the gangs paying for insurance? What a waste of time."

The convicted drug dealer continues: "You can't walk the streets around here without protection. My dog could kill a man in minutes.

"I've set my dog on people in the past, but nobody who didn't deserve it. Dogs become more legendary than their owners. One dealer on this estate had a pit bull which was so tough a gang set out to assassinate it.

"About ten of them tracked it down and stabbed it seven times with a kebab knife. It was still going for them, even full of holes."

To make the dogs as fearsome as possible, gangs torture their animals.

Chris says: "We make the dogs anti-human. First thing is to lock the dog away, isolate them for weeks. I only let it see me so it doesn't trust anyone else.

"Then, when I start letting him out, I have a word or noise which I'll use to gee him up - get him all excited.

"If he plays up or doesn't obey my commands he'll get a wallop.

"I know of people who use cattle prods or stun guns to send their dogs crazy. They're natural-born killers anyway, but if you torment them they become even worse."

In an attempt to keep some level of peace on the estates, dog-owning gangs follow an imaginary traffic light system. Chris says: "The top man on the block, me, will act as a controller, signalling when someone can walk their dog down the road.

"A lad will wait at the top of the street until I give him the green light. I don't let him go until the block is clear. When the dogs get close to one another they can kick off, so I wait until there are no kiddies about.

"I had a dog which got locked in a fight with another - it's not pretty. My dog needed 30 stitches in its face.

"Dogs aren't kept for fighting, they're for protection. For a lot of gang members the dog is the most valuable thing they own - the last thing they want is for it to be done in by another dog." Chris and his gang all own what they say are pit bull and English bull terrier-type crosses, which cost between £300 and £600 from an illegal breeder.

Under the 1991 Dangerous Dogs Act, it is illegal to own a pit bull-type dog in the UK.

More than 1,000 "status" dogs were seized in London last year, up from just 43 in 2003. In 2009 there were 5,221 dog attacks on people in the UK, nearly double the figure of a decade ago.

The Home Secretary's measures come in the wake of cases such as four-year-old John-Paul Massey, savaged to death by a pit bull at his gran's house in Liverpool last year. He was the fifth child to die at the jaws of a "devil" dog in just three years. But Chris echoes concerns that forcing people to insure their dogs will merely tax responsible owners - leaving the public no safer.

He says: "People with dangerous dogs won't get insurance. It's just a way of the Government making money out of law abiders.

"Dogs are a vital tool for gangs, they won't give them up."

Investigative reporter and author Graham Johnson, whose book Soljas is about gang warfare in the UK, says: "If a gang member has a weapon dog with him he instantly becomes the most feared person in that group. Vicious dogs give people power and status on estates that have been sucked dry of aspiration and esteem by deprivation.

"I've come across drug dealers who use dogs to guard their crack houses and robbers who have set them on innocent families while they steal a flat-screen telly.

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"Today hard dogs have the same currency as guns in the underworld."

It is not just estates in London which are being ruled by "devil" dogs. We spoke to 26-year-old gang member Fleck, from the notorious Moss Side area of Manchester.

He controls his five-year-old crossbreed using a chain he had specially made by a welder. He thinks his dog is a cross between a Presa Canario, a pit bull and possibly a mastiff - but like most gang members he can't be sure because it was bought from an unlicensed dog breeder on an industrial estate in Fazakerley, Merseyside.

Fleck, 21, says: "I got him because I wanted a man-stopper.

"Street dogs are worse than fighting dogs because they're not bred with thought. Their genes are all f***** up - that's why they kill children.

"Owners won't admit it but even they can't fully trust their own dogs. But I need it for protection.

"I've used him twice in anger - once when my car got robbed, to fight the lad the who did it and another time when a kid from another area got mouthy."

The drug dealer continues: "If I'm working I have my dog there so I won't get robbed."

Back in London, Chris tells us: "The local Iceland shop has to employ a guard at the meat counter full-time because so many people steal steak for their dogs.

"Look out on this estate and you'll see young single mums with ferocious dogs. The dads of the kids are long gone, so without the dog they'd be made a target.

"That's how dangerous the streets are in this city."

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/2887802/My-bull-terrier-could-kill-a-man-in-minutes.html