The owner of an XL bully that was mistakenly euthanised by police has revealed he had been waiting for a call to collect the family pet when he instead learned he had been put down due to an “administration error”.
Lancashire Police said it has given the family an “unreserved apology” for euthanising the seized dog, named Bruno, while the owners were in the process of applying for an exemption to keep him.
Bruno’s owner, Connor Halliwell, told Sky News he is “devastated… because I was waiting for him to come home”.
The dog was at a police station for four weeks, during which Mr Halliwell, 27, from Morecambe, tried to contact officers to find out what was happening.
He said: “They went to go and see the dog and do an assessment on the dog and see if he was really good and calm, and he was, so I got a phone call about that, saying, ‘we’ve had some good news about Bruno – he’s been brilliant and passed the assessment’.
“A couple of weeks later, I didn’t have a phone call so I got hold of them myself, and I had to go to a meeting at the police station with a sergeant.”
That’s when he was told Bruno had been put down due to an admin error.
“I was waiting for messages, emails, saying, ‘you can come and see Bruno now or we can drop him off at your house’. I was just waiting for a call,” he said.
Lancashire Police said it has introduced a process “to ensure the same mistake cannot be made again”.
But Mr Halliwell suggested he was not going to let the matter drop.
“I’m going to take it further,” he told Sky News, adding he would be talking to his MP Lizzi Collinge to see how she could help.
“I’m feeling devastated, upset, and everything else,” he said. “I don’t know how they can get it wrong.”
He said there was nothing “vicious” about Bruno, and revealed some negative comments had been made about the family pet on social media.
“We’ve had a few comments saying, ‘you should put Bruno with the other dogs that have been killed and shot and stabbed, in a graveyard full of animals’,” he said.
“They don’t know Bruno’s background,” he added, describing the two-year-old as a “softie”.
“He was a big dog, he was a beautiful dog, he was good with kids,” he said.
From 1 February, it became a criminal offence to own the XL bully breed in England and Wales without an exemption certificate.
Anyone who owns one of the dogs must have had the animal neutered, have it microchipped and keep it muzzled and on a lead in public, among other restrictions.
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In a statement, Lancashire Police said: “In August we seized an XL bully dog from an address in Morecambe as part of our powers under the Dangerous Dogs Act, as XL bully dogs are a banned breed.
“A file was being prepared for consideration of the owner being prosecuted for the relevant offences.
“However, unfortunately, due to an administration error, the dog was subsequently euthanised before the court hearing.”
Ms Collinge, MP for Morecambe and Lunesdale, has demanded answers over the incident.
“This should be a ‘never event’ and I have taken this issue up directly with the police,” she told the BBC.
