Faye Winter won't rehome XL Bully she 'fell in love with' despite slamming ban

05 February 2024 , 14:50

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Faye Winter has opened up about possibly rehoming an XL Bully (Image: Jonathan Hordle/REX/Shutterstock)

Faye Winter had plans to rehome an XL Bully she fell in love with, but cruel and scary trolls put a stop to this.

The star, who found fame on Love Island, had been extremely vocal about disagreeing with the ban on the breed. Prime Minster Rishi Sunak acted quickly to ban the breed following a rise in attacks which left people fatally injured, or even dead. The new law makes it illegal to breed, sell, advertise, exchange, rehome, abandon or allow an XL Bully dog to stray in England and Wales.

But over Christmas, Faye, 28, grew close to a dog named Nala at a local rehoming centre but had to decide against bringing her home after a terrifying encounter with her online fans. "I was really keen, there was an XL Bully rehoming centre near me [and there was a dog] called Nala, and I want to rehome Nala, I had no problems with rehoming her but the amount of abuse from people, basically with the new exemption you're only allowed to be away from your dog for 31 days of the year.

Faye had been hoping to rehome XL Bully Nala but terrifying followers made her think again (Instagram/ @faye__winter)

Faye revealed she was told she would be watched if she rehomed the dog (Getty Images)

"I had people messaging me knowing that probably knew my plan was to get one of these dogs, not because I wanted to make a point but because I wanted people to see the other side of these dogs. I wanted them to see that in the right hands, in a loving environment, they're as soppy as anything.

"I had people messaging me saying they were going to keep tabs on me for how many days I was away from my house so that they could report me. For me, I couldn't make that work, I am away from my house." She added: "I understand that not every dog is the same, like humans, you cannot tarnish everyone with the same brush. It's really difficult and I think it was easy for the government to say 'Ok let's ban it,' because it seemed the easiest thing to do at the time." She added: "It's so sad that I couldn't rehome a dog because I was too scared that people would have reported me and that dog would have been taken away from me, it's so tough."

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Faye went on to discuss the recent death of Esther Martin in Jaywick, Essex, who died after being attacked by an XL Bully type dog. Ms Martin had been "seriously injured" but later died on the scene of the attack. The two dogs were put down at the scene and the force said the breed of the dogs involved had not yet been confirmed but Esther's daughter Kelly Fretwell confirmed to the Mirror they were the recently banned breed XL Bully.

Esther Martin died over the weekend after being attacked by two dogs (Martin family / SWNS)

Faye admits she puts her dog Bonnie before any work or social commitments (INSTAGRAM)

"There was a case in Essex, they weren't an XL Bully, they were an XL Bully-type dog," she said, adding: "It's difficult, nobody will speak about that side of it. I'm going out to as many rehoming centres as I can across the country and the big rehoming centres as well. I've had numerous conversations and meetings, I'm going to be going and listening. I know the bones of my petition, I know what I want but I also want to make sure what I'm saying is going to be helping these charities and rehoming centres."

Faye will be putting through a petition on the Licensing of Dogs to Protect Animal Welfare which will see the clamp down on backstreet breeding and selling and see dogs being bred through authorised and checked markets. She says that should she ever sit down with Sunk or Tory MPs, she would explain that the UK is "lagging support" for breeding regulations.

"It seems that the whole breed is getting generalised," Faye added before saying: "When actually we need to look at the people that are weaponising these dogs, back street breeders. People are being judged for the type of dog they own. There are issues of in the UK that need seeing too and I just want to be a part of that movement. I want to find out as much as I possibly can from the amazing charities that are really struggling at the moment with the amount of dogs that are abandoned from the amount of dogs that are puppy farmed and from the amount of dogs that are abused."

Currently, people are able to buy dogs via sites such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok – with Faye revealing she is frequently seeing people selling pooches on livestreams. She said: "It's kind of just going a bit crazy with the amount of people that are financially gaining and profiting from these dogs because ultimately, dogs are worth lots of money and people will pay it. So for me it's about trying to educate people and trying to get those rules and regulations put in place. So these people aren't falling into the traps of that because it's really hard."

Having spoken about disagreeing with the general ban, Faye revealed that she had lost work. She revealed: "There was a comment that was made that was you know, if somebody else does die at the hands of an XL Bully, you will be blamed for sticking up for these dogs. The public are likely to turn against you. I understand, that nobody in the UK deserves to die innocently, if that's at the hands of a dog, or the hands of a weapon, which some of these dogs are being turned into. My problem was the fact that it was going to be the dogs that would suffer."

Daniel Bird