Owner cleared of XL Bully’s attack

AN XL Bully owner has been cleared by a court after his pet attacked and killed another dog on a Blairgowrie housing estate.

Bonnie, a mixed-breed Spanish terrier, died from her injuries after being mauled by Bryan Laird’s dog in the town’s Newhill Way in February last year.

Perth’s Justice of the Peace Court heard how workmen hit the XL Bully with a fence post in a desperate attempt to force it to let go.

Laird went on trial accused of allowing his dog to savage Bonnie.

The 31-year-old, of Landsdowne Square, Dundee, faced allegations he was in charge of the animal – whose name is unknown to prosecutors – and permitted it to seize the terrier by the body with its mouth, compress her body and refuse to let her go.

But he was cleared this week after no fault was found and the Crown case against him collapsed.

Groundworker Ryan McIntosh told the trial he heard a commotion while working at a new-build property on Scotia Homes’ Hazelwood site on February 20 2023. He ran into the street to see the XL Bully attacking the smaller dog as a crowd of people looked on. Mr McIntosh, 42, said: “I tried to hit it with a fence post.

“I smacked it with the stick but it kept bouncing off of it. It just wouldn’t let go.”

Another man tried to take a hold of the XL Bully’s mouth.

Asked by fiscal depute Duncan McKenzie if the dog eventually let go of the terrier, Mr McIntosh said: “Aye, but by then it was too late.”

Mr McIntosh’s colleague Ryan Carr, 26, said he also went into the street after hearing “a lot of screaming and dogs barking”.

He said: “The little dog was owned by one of the couples who had moved onto the site.”

He said he did not see where the XL Bully came from. “All I know was it had this little dog in its mouth.”

Site manager Steven Milne, 42, told the trial he did not see the attack but described the aftermath.

“People were asking us to clean up because there was a lot of blood on the road.”

Solicitor Ross Donnelly, for Laird, said it was not disputed his client was in charge of the XL Bully that day. But he stressed there had been no proof Laird permitted the animal to cause danger or injury, as per the charge.

He said: “There’s nothing suggesting this was caused by any fault on Mr Laird’s part.”

JP Allan Robertson agreed with Mr Donnelly’s “no case to answer” submission.

There was no mention of whether or not the dog was destroyed.

Bryan Laird outside the court.