Dog attacks across the UK have surged since the pandemic years to even more shocking levels, and the Mirror has discovered which police forces have the most incident reports
Dog attacks have nearly doubled since the pandemic with more than three occurring an hour on our streets and in our homes.
Meanwhile an alarming trend has been identified as owners look to skirt the country’s violent dogs ban using a loophole Bully breed.
In 2025 alone, new data obtained by the Mirror reveals, at least 29,400 out-of-control dog attacks causing injury offences were recorded by police, equivalent to 81 a day, or 3.4 every hour. The massive number is a significant five percent increase on the already high number of attacks recorded in 2024 – the year violent XL Bully dogs were banned – when police logged 28,000 attacks. Pre-Covid just over 16,000 were recorded.
Experts who have spent years exploring data said one conclusion from the Mirror’s statistics is dog attacks are rising as society appears to be “disintegrating in front of our very eyes”.
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The fresh numbers show attacks have almost doubled since the pandemic began, painting a grim picture of a booming trend that has left people dead, disfigured, and permanently disabled.
The figures show an increase in the number of dog attacks since 2020, when 16,040 were recorded, up to 19,762 in 2021, 21,700 in 2022, and 27,000 in 2023. They have been released thanks to exclusive Mirror Freedom of Information requests made to every police force in the country.
Mike and Shirley Anderson, the stepdad and mum of Jade Lomas-Anderson, who died after she was attacked by a pack of dogs in Wigan, Greater Manchester, in 2013, told the Mirror they were “appalled” by the new figures, but not surprised. Asked if he was shocked by the numbers, Mike said: “No. Since what happened with Jade, I think it’s increased every single year.”
“Appalling, appalling figures.” Shirley said: “It’s just really horrific that we keep hearing the same situation all the time. Most day’s I’m reading something or it comes on the telly – it’s just gotten worse. It makes me really angry.”
Mike added: “My heart goes out to people that are in the same position as me.” The pair believe it is necessary to change the laws around dog bans, believing that the legislation in its current form is not doing enough to curb the amount of attacks coming from multiple dogs, not just XL bullies.
The Metropolitan Police in London recorded the most dog attacks last year with 2,530, among them one incident in which a woman was attacked in a church garden by a “monster” animal.
The unnamed 42-year-old was left with trauma and deep wounds after she was mauled by a dog in the garden on St Mark’s Church in Primrose Hill, Camden. She said the muscular dog was off the leash when it pounced on her in January 25, locking its jaws on her as she tried to protect her two poodles.
The victim recalled the ferocious attack to the Camden New Journal, saying its jaws were powerful enough to puncture her thick winter coat, and that its owners tried in vain to wrestle the dog off her.
She said: “I picked up my dogs to save them and the Bully ferociously began its attack on me – two men, presumably one was the owner, tried vainly to wrestle him off me. The dog bit through my clothes, ripping my jeans and thick winter coat and wouldn’t let go of my arm.”
“Eventually the two guys ran off with their monster dog and I spent hours in A&E. If I hadn’t been wearing such a thickwinter coat and layers I would not have an arm today.
The woman added: “The dog bites were extremely painful and I was bleeding. The dog wouldn’t stop biting – it was definitely a near-death experience.”
After the Met, Greater Manchester Police – the area where Jade lost her life – recorded the second most cases, with 1,678. There was widespread shock earlier this year after an “XL bully type dog” inflicted serious injuries on a 10-year-old girl.
Two dogs were seized after Mina Bestun was attacked on Roseneath Road in Bolton, Greater Manchester, in February and was left in hospital with life-changing injuries. A 28-year-old man and a woman, 52, were arrested on suspicion of possessing a dangerously out of control dog.
Mina’s father, Bestun Ibrahim said his daughter was lucky to be alive, telling the BBC: “It was only her arm, if it was her face or her stomach, what would I do then? She was very lucky. Please, if you have a dog keep an eye on it.”
In the worst scenarios people have died, with three people killed in the space of a week earlier this month. West Midlands Police said a woman in her 70s died on April 15 after she was attacked by two dogs – which were destroyed due to their “continued aggression” – at a house in Wolverhampton.
A 37-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of being in charge of a dog dangerously out of control and causing injury resulting in death following the incident.
Wolverhampton is overseen by West Midlands Police, which saw the fourth highest number of dog attacks – 1,325 – just a shade under those reported by Lancashire police, which reported 1,333, and slightly more than the 1,265 incidents recorded by Devon & Cornwall police.
The woman’s death came following two other fatal dog attacks the week prior, those of Jamie-Lea Biscoe, 19, at the hands of what was described as a “genuine family dog” and of a three-month-old in Redcar, near Middlesborough. Tiny Maggie May Ann Moody, remembered as “perfect in every way” and “the heart of her family” died on April 9 following the attack, believed to have been carried out by a “pocket bully”.
The alternative bully types are being bred in the UK as a means to circumvent the XL bully ban, which was introduced in February 2024 following a spate of violent dog attacks.
It has been claimed that the smaller dogs, also known as “micro” and “nano” bullies don’t meet the ban criteria because they only grow to between 22 and 27cm. XL bullies that meet the ban criteria must be around 19 inches (48 centimetres) at the withers – the highest point on a dog’s back – nearly more than double the higher band for “micro” bullies.
Some forces provided figures which also compared the number of attacks with the local population, giving an indication of attack scale in contrast to merely recording incidents. Lincolnshire Police recorded 94 out of control dog attacks for every 10,000 people living in the area last year. That’s the highest rate in the country.
In Northamptonshire there were 93 for every 100,000 people, in Durham it was 88, and in Cumbria it was 86. Not every police force to respond to our FOI requests was able to provide figures for 2019, the last full year before the pandemic.
Those that did, however, recorded a total of 14,000 out-of-control dog attacks causing injury that year. Those forces went on to log 25,200 attacks in 2025, meaning that those forces experienced an 80 percent increase. The number of people going to A&E due to dog bites has also been on the rise since the pandemic.
There were 10,905 A&E admissions in England in the year ending March 2025. That was down slightly from 10,924 in 2023/24, but was still the second highest number on record.
It was up from 9,027 back in 2019/20, according to official figures from the NHS. Dr Sam Gaines, Head of Companion Animals for the RSPCA, said it was “heartbreaking” that the number of bite incidents has continued to increase, and suggested current legislation is not doing the job it should be.
Dr Gaines said: “It is absolutely heartbreaking that serious bite incidents are continuing to increase – underlining that current legislation simply isn’t working and has been failing public safety for too long.
“The fact that incidents like these persist highlights that the UK Government urgently needs to adopt a different approach, towards preventing dangerous behaviours, rather than focusing on the dog’s individual breed.”
Dr Carri Westgarth, a Professor in Human-Animal Interaction at the University of Liverpool, said she and her colleagues have seen an increase in dog attacks in their own data from hospitals taken over several years, but said there was no single root cause. She told the Mirror: “I think it’s no one thing, never is when it comes to things like injuries and dog bites, there’s no one thing driving it.
“It’s a combination of numerous factors that come together to create a perfect storm.” Among those issues she said, were people owning more dogs, those owners taking advice from self-proclaimed TikTok “dog trainers”, and a lack of resources to access proper training.
Asked whether those factors could include stress at home or societal pressure, Professor Westgarth raised the theory that there could be a correlation between the behaviour of dogs and stressed, angrier owners amid the post-pandemic cost of living crisis. She said: “Society is just, it’s kind of disintegrating in front of our very eyes.
“It feels like it some days. And perhaps this is another another way this is coming out, we’ve got crazier, busier lives. [We’ve got to be aware of] the reliability of different sources of information, where we’re getting animals from, how we’re knowing how to interact with them. Our lives just seem more stressful in general.”
James McNally a partner at Slee Blackwell Solicitors and expert on dog attacks, said there has also been a spike in the number of dogs in public spaces, and their owners are becoming increasingly careless, with many of his firm’s clients being delivery drivers who are being bitten by unattended dogs when attending clients’ homes.
He said: “There are undoubtedly more dogs, you know, people during lockdown got more dogs. So there are more dogs out there in order to bite people.” He added: “People just don’t think that their dog is going to cause any injury, and I think that’s the that’s the main problem.”
