Chief Veterinary Officer, Doctor Christine Middlemiss has encouraged XL Bully owners to register their pets or face a major ban as the new rules come into play on Wednesday.

New rules for owning American XL bully dogs are being introduced in England and Wales. They must now be kept on a lead and muzzled in public. From 1 February it will be illegal to own one without an exemption certificate.

Speaking on GB News she said: "All dogs in England and Wales already have to be microchipped, so it would be scanned for the microchip number and then we can check on our database whether it's registered or not.

"If it's not registered then it becomes a criminal offence to own that dog and it'll be for the courts to decide what the next steps are."