Cane Corso is new ‘XL bully on steroids’ however footballers love the controversial breed

EXCLUSIVE: The Italian mastiff is loved by celebrities, in no small part due to their natural disposition as guard dogs, with high profile name owners including Tottenham and England star James Maddison

The XL bully is back, sort of, with calls for a new breed to be subjected to a government ban amid a local dog charity claiming they’re asked to take in around 10 a week.

The cane corso, a guard dog that can grow to weigh more than 50kg, has found itself at the centre of the latest pooch hunt with some experts claiming they should face the same fate as the bully did last year. The fire was stoked and public anxiety spiked last month when a canine behaviour specialist revealed the breed was like an “XL bully on steroids,” sparking calls to treat the dog as such.

The Italian mastiff is loved by celebrities, in no small part due to their natural disposition as guard dogs, with high profile names including Tottenham star James Maddison regularly confessing his love for Denzel, who he claims is 66kg. Aston Villa’s Marcus Rashford too is understood to have one called Saint, while Andy Carroll has one called Bane.

However, incidents relating to the breed are on the rise. South Yorkshire police recently released footage of an incident in Sheffield last autumn left a man and teenage girl injured, with the dog in question believed to be a cane corso.

Last year, Love Island winner Jack Fincham was charged for allowing his out of control cane corso, Elvis, to bite a man. He later pleaded guilty to two counts of being in charge of a dangerously out of control dog. He was released on bail on January 29 pending an appeal, with the application heard by a district judge in open court, Fincham’s solicitor told Sky News.

“There are a lot of them, we get offered probably 10 a week at the moment, Ira Moss of London-based dong charity All Dogs Matter told the Daily Star. “A bit like the XL bully, people buy them and then say they are too strong for them. They can grow to be up to 50kgs.”

She says people often get them free online or buy them off someone else because they are moving or can’t afford to feed them because of their size, meaning anyone can get them. A quick search at the time of writing saw 47 separate adverts for cane corsos on Gumtree in the UK.

Ira said many were “soppy” and said they could be good family dogs, but noted “on reflection” she had seen a spike in the number of cane corsos she was seeing come into the shelter after the XL bully ban.

She explained the breed was extraordinarily loyal and lovely if raised correctly, but as such react badly to be rehomed, instead saying they needed to stay with the people they were loyal too.

She said: “It is really hard to rehome them and we can’t take them all in because we’d be full, so people advertise them online and give them to anyone who comes along – whether they’re 10 years old or 50, it doesn’t really matter at that point because there’s no legislation.

“They’re a guiding breed by nature and if you don’t know what you’re doing with them you’re going to end up in trouble.

“They’re a one person dog and if they need to go to the vets they’re going to be expensive… a cane corso is going to need four [worming tablets].”

Then, in a strong echo to the XL bully saga, she added: “They’re pretty much a status dog.

“They are a guarding breed, so it is in their DNA to guard, so if a homeless person has one nd lets say that homeless person is asleep, that dog could in theory think it is protecting that person.”

But despite this, the dog’s history makes them a challenge in particular circumstances. Speaking to the Guardian, Elisa Allen, the vice-president of programmes and operations for the animal protection charity Peta UK, said: “Humans have intentionally bred it to hunt large game and to fiercely protect farmland from predators … to have massive, muscular bodies, a high prey drive and extremely strong jaws.”

Despite this, Ira said that their strong jaws were merely a symptom of their size, and didn’t think they were necessarily more dangerous than other dogs of the same physicality.