HUNDREDS of dogs – feared to be more dangerous than XL bullies – are being traded online for as little as £75.
Italian mastiffs known as Cane Corsos, which have been dubbed XL’s on steroids, can weigh up to 50kg (8st) and are fast becoming the new status symbol dog.
Celebrity owners including soccer star Marcus Rashford and Love Island’s Jack Ficham are helping make them even more popular – with many celebs now buying them to guard properties.
And now a Sun Online probe has found hundreds of the puppies are being offered for sale by breeders across the country.
One site, Pets4Homes, currently has 224 advertisements placed by people looking to sell puppies or rehome adult Cane Corsos.
While full-grown versions of the dog are being flogged for as little as £75, the popularity of the breed means that some puppies are costing up to £3,500 a time.
Alarmingly many of those being sold can be linked to Romania where animal welfare standards are well below those in the UK.
Dogs there routinely have their ears cropped and tails docked – a practice which is illegal in the UK.
Experts say this can create severe behavioural problems in dogs and make them aggressive.
Cane Corsos are fully legal in the UK and the breed isn’t subject to the same restrictions as XL bullies.
There aren’t any official numbers showing how many cane corsos are in the UK – the Kennel Club doesn’t recognise the breed, for instance – but canine behaviour specialists say they’re seeing the dogs more frequently.
Rob Alleyne, who runs the Canine Instructor Academy in Suffolk, told the Times earlier this month that he and colleagues are seeing cane corsos more often, describing them as ‘like an XL bully on steroids’.
He said: “It’s a killing machine and they’ve become much more popular now.
“[The ban on XL bullies] has just pushed people towards an even worse dog that doesn’t need to be registered and God help us if they become too popular.
“I certainly know my trainees are now seeing more cane corso dogs [in their own training classes] than they used to.
“I just think it’s history repeating itself. We saw it happen with the pitbull terrier.
“When they banned the pitbull terrier, what did we get? We got a dog far more dangerous than the pitbull terrier.
“They just made a new one worse than the preceding one: the XL bully.
“And then if we ban the cane corso, people will just go out and get something else.”
Bill Lambert, a spokesman for the Kennel Club, told the Metro: “Lots of families enjoy owning larger breeds or types of dogs, and many may now be looking for a pet that is broadly similar to an XL bully but not a banned type, without any ill intentions.
“Any dog can make a wonderful family pet if bred, trained and socialised properly — and with a larger dog, owners need to really understand their pet’s size, strength and exercise needs and be able to accommodate these responsibly.
“Sadly however, any large or powerful dog can also appeal to those who wish to train a dog for illicit purposes, and banning breeds can move these people on to other breeds — or indeed new types of dogs that are outside of the law.”
Our probe found rising numbers of Cane Corsos being put up for sale.
One seller based in Fife in Scotland was this week offering nine four-week old puppies for sale for £2,000 each.
This means the litter of four male and five female pups is potentially worth a cool £18,000 in total.
Another breeder specialising in Cane Corsos with a “champion bloodline”, based in Aldershot in Hampshire, currently has nine puppies for sale at prices ranging from £2,000 to £3,500 each.
Four of the seven-week-old pups had already been reserved and the nine remaining ones were worth a total of £30,500.
Another breeder cashing in on the lucrative trade, based in Burton-on-Trent in Staffordshire and claiming to be council licensed, had eight pups on sale.
The 9-week-old dogs were one sale for £1,600 each, meaning the breeder was looking at making some £12,800 from the litter.
Another seller in Coventry has five six-week-old puppies for sale for £1,500 each, giving a total of £9,000.
The seller revealed that the mother dog had been imported from Romania where animal welfare standards are well below those in the UK.
Some breeders source their animals from countries such as Romania and Serbia where cropping of ears and docking tails remains legal unlike the UK.
We found breeders operating online stores dedicated to selling Cane Corso dogs from abroad.
One dealer, called New Era Cane Corso, boasted: “We have New Era Cane Corso puppies for sale available cropped and docked from our partners in Europe. Available for export world wide.”
Another called Juanma Morato, based in Barcelona, was offering puppies for sale to buyers in the UK and gave a mobile phone number where prices could be agreed in a WhatsApp chat.
His website said: “We have amazing Italian Mastiff puppies, if you are interested and live in London, UK, we can ship them to you. You can have your amazing puppies of cane corso in one week.”
