An XL bully dog owner whose pet provides a ‘lifeline' to her autistic son has called out Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for demonising the breed.
The Beaumont family's docile family dog Rosie enjoys a special relationship with 16-year-old Joe, who has autism and receives emotional support from their pet.
Lindsey Beaumont, 43, explained: ‘If he closes down and is not able to speak what he is feeling or thinking, he will go to the dog.
‘It's unconditional love. She is the biggest comfort and help – she's his lifeline.'
The mother-of-two said she believes Rosie's breed are now being singled out and ‘picked on' due to a minority of cases of out-of-control dogs.
‘What is happening now is going to make it 10 million times worse because of the way the media are now portraying it and what the Prime Minister has decided to do.
‘He said they are a danger to our children, but no, they are not.'
Rosie, an American XL Bully dog, is pictured with owner Joe, who has autism. Mrs Beaumont said her dog is ‘just the most docile, big, floppy and lazy bear'.
Lindsey Beaumont, pictured, explained that if her son ‘closes down and is not able to speak what he is feeling or thinking, he will go to the dog'.
Mrs Beaumont believes all members of Rosie's breed are being painted in a bad light due to the behaviour of a few bad apples, and blames the dogs' owners for not keeping their pets under control.
‘There might be some dogs in this breed that are, but you cannot make that generalisation about all dogs in the whole breed.
‘It is not fair to just pick on a whole breed of dog because there may be only a handful of bad ones.
‘It's absolutely all down to the owners. There are lots of other bullies as loving out there.
‘Rosie's no more dangerous than any other dog.'
She now she will be forced to muzzle Rosie, who the family adopted as a puppy nearly three years ago, when she takes her out for walks, which will dampen the dog's ‘quality of life'.
She always worries a ban on the animals, pledged by Rishi Sunak last week, would affect her son, who has autism.
‘She is his constant emotional support and sometimes the only way I can get him to communicate.
‘We all rely on her in different ways – she is a member of our family and brings us together.'
Although there will not be a cull of bullies, owners of the breed will be required to neuter their dogs and put a muzzle on them when out in public.
The first step of the move to ban the breed is taking place this week, with police, vets and other experts helping to define the breed.
A consultation will then take place on the ban, which will be imposed by the end of the year.
The Beaumont family, however, believes this one-size-fits-all policy applied by the PM is unfair.
Mrs Beaumont said her dog is ‘just the most docile, big, floppy and lazy bear.
‘If she hears a child crying, she will stop. If my 12-year-old, Sam, is climbing a tree, she won't continue walking but will sit at the bottom of the tree and wait for him to come down.
‘She can get excited – all dogs get excited. We tell her to go to her bed and she'll calm down, but we have never had any problems.
‘She's docile and perfect for a family dog, but there's no way she's totally perfect.
‘I work on training her all the time. Her recall is not great, and that's why I keep her on a lead, but no dog is perfect.'
She added: ‘If she is labelled as a dangerous dog, I won't be able to have the freedom to take her places.
‘When she gets hot, she pants and her tongue lolls out. Dogs use that to cool down so I would worry health-wise that it would be detrimental.'
The Beaumont family's docile family dog Rosie enjoys a special relationship with 16-year-old Joe, who has autism and receives emotional support from the pet.
Mrs Beaumont says rather than punishing all XL bullies, some kind of licence should be introduced for owners.
‘Maybe there should be some sort of licence introduced to be able to own a dog,' she suggested.
‘Why should you be able to take away people's right to be able to breed lovely family dogs?'
