Gustavo says you cannot blame Killer Kimbo for the actions of his descendants
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The breeder of the 'original' American XL bully which is the descendent of 50% of the dogs currently alive in the UK says the breed only became violent when people put them on steroids. Gustavo Castro's dog Kimbo has been dubbed Killer Kimbo because of the breed's links with violent attacks.
About 50% of all breeding American bullies in the UK are linked to “Killer Kimbo”, and it and its offspring are “linked to multiple deaths”, a legal academic has said. Speaking to Times Radio, Dr Lawrence Newport said: “The American bully is founded on American pit bull terrier, it was essentially started in the late 80s and early 90s by breeding fighting American pit bull terriers. These are dogs that have one on one fight to the deaths with other dogs and they were then bred together.
“The claim was that they were then mixed with other kinds of large dog breeds like mastiffs, etc. What research from Bully Watch has shown is that actually if you trace their pedigrees, these dogs are just highly inbred fighting pit bulls.
“Indeed, a recent investigative work with Bully Watch and the Telegraph showed that 50% of all American bullies in the country or breeding American bullies in the country, are linked to one single dog known as Killer Kimbo who is linked to multiple deaths, certainly his offspring are linked to multiple deaths, and Killer Kimbo is so inbred he has the same great grandfather four times over.”
Gustavo, from Los Angeles, told The Sun: "Some people when they get my dogs they start injecting them with steroids and other stuff that they’re not supposed to, to get them big. All that stuff has side effects. You’re not going to get a normal dog, the dog’s going to be different.
"My dogs are naturally big. Puppies take more from the mother’s genes anyway. If the mothers are aggressive it isn’t necessarily Kimbo’s fault."
The American XL bully breed of dog has been responsible for nearly 50% of all attacks on both humans and dogs, and 70% of all deaths to dogs since 2021, Dr Newport said. He added: “This dog breed is responsible for over 70% of all deaths to dogs since 2021, it’s responsible for nearly 50% of all attacks on both humans and other dogs.
“In July of this year, in one week, in July this year, one dog a day was killed by an American bully. They are a uniquely dangerous breed of dog.
“But we actually know that bans work, because we’ve had one in place on Pit Bulls since 1991. That ban has been very successful. And we know that because for example, in the UK, we have half the per capita deaths to dogs that the US does, and that difference is entirely explained by Pit Bulls.
“Pit Bulls in the US are around about 60% of all deaths to dogs. We don’t have that here, in large part because of the ban.
“And indeed, the recent rise of the American Bully is a natural experiment in what happens if you relax a ban. They are after all a Pit Bull type and in around about 2015 they were allowed through a couple of court cases they were seen as a quote unquote different breed and were then allowed into the country and of course by 2018, many are imported and now we have found to our great cost, what that means, deaths and attacks skyrocket. Bans work.”
In Stonnall, Staffordshire on Thursday, two XL bullies mauled dad Ian Price, 52, to death. He had been visiting his elderly mum when the dogs escaped through the window of a neighbouring property. In nearby Birmingham, an 11-year-old girl was attacked by what was thought to have been an XL Bully near a Texaco garage.
The dog that killed Wrexham lorry driver Keven Jones, 65, last year was related to Kimbo both maternally and paternally, according to The Telegraph. The publication also reported that the deaths of four-year-old Mia Derouen in Louisiana in 2014 and an 82-year-old woman in Oklahoma in 2017 are believed to have been caused by dogs related to Kimbo. Gloria Zsigmond, a UK-based scientist with BullyWatch, used family trees uploaded by breeders to trace Kimbo's violent lineage in the UK. From a sample of 50 stud dogs advertised online, she found 32 were related to the dog.
Kimbo's offspring – with names such as Unstoppable Juggernaut, the Joker and Frank Sinatra – are often referenced in online adverts for XL bullies. She said: "Kimbo bled into all those bloodlines because he was early on and he was so dominant in breeding. There are some good bloodlines where Kimbo isn’t there, but there are many where he is.
"Kimbo’s offspring became very, very popular and they’re still so popular in the UK to this day." Colleen Lynn, founder of the non-profit group DogsBite, said: "[Kimbo] is a real notorious one. If you look at the pedigrees of the American Bullies that have been killed in the US, that dog is in there."
Prime Minister Rishu Sunak says American XL bullies will be banned by the end of this year.
American Bullies were created in the 1990s by breeding two dogs that are banned in the UK – the American Staffordshire terrier and the American pit bull terrier. After they became popular, breeders worked to produce different sizes – and thus came the XL Bully. XL Bullies first reached the UK in 2015.
