The Spectator has mapped the approved applications for certificates of exemption to keep an XL Bully dog by postcode district.

In the SE28 postcode, which covers Thamesmead, 44 applications for XL Bullies were approved.

This ranks the area as having the 400th highest number of approved XL Bully dogs in 2,424 postcode districts

This data came from a Freedom of Information Request put forward by The Spectator.

SE18, covering Plumstead and Woolwich, has the highest number of approved applications for XL Bully dogs in south east London, with 133 approvals, ranking 16th out of 2,424 postcodes.

The second south east London postcode on the list is SE9, which covers Eltham, Mottingham, New Eltham, Falconwood, Chinbrook, Longlands, and Kidbrooke.

SE9 was ranked in at number 28 with 113 approved applications of XL Bullies.

In England and Wales, it is a criminal offence to own or possess an XL Bully dog without a valid Certificate of Exemption.

It is also illegal to sell, abandon, or give away an XL Bully dog, let it stray, breed or breed from it, or have it in public without a lead and muzzle.

The mapped data from The Spectator states that the highest number of XL Bully ownership across England and Wales is in Croydon's CR0 postcode, with 219 dogs.

The second highest is in the S5 postcode area north of Sheffield, with 189 dogs, followed closely by a region in Warrington with 182 applications for XL Bully’s.

Earlier this month, a pregnant dog suspected to be an XL Bully was found in a park near Lewisham inside a carrier bag with its microchip cut out.

Some of the minor wounds the dog sustained may have been the result of a dogfight.

A member of the public found the animal inside of a blood-stained shopping bag on Carswell Road, off Ringstead Road, near to the entrance of Mountsfield Park at around 9am on Thursday, May 23.

The dog was aged around two or three but a vet who examined its body suspects that its microchip was cut out after she died.

In March last year, Amy Legemah, of Atlee Road in Thamesmead, cried “he’s my son” as a judge ordered her XL Bully be put down for attacking a seven-year-old boy.

The 37-year-old's XL Bully Hugo bit a child on Attlee Road in Thamesmead. “The boy was running and playing with another child when the XL Bully went to him without warning, grabbed his leg and bit it,” the court heard.

Then 11 days later Hugo and her other dog, a Rottweiler named Luna, attacked a student.

Legemah tripped and dropped both Hugo and Luna’s leads as she left her flat to take them on a walk. Hugo ran off first, followed by Luna.

An 18-year-old student who was passing the flat said the XL Bully stared at her before launching an attack.

He jumped at her, biting her elbow and right knee, before Luna joined in the attacked and bit the woman’s ankle.

The woman, who was knocked to the ground, said: “The incident made me fear for my life. I was very scared at the time, and it has really shaken me up.”

Legemah was given a one-year community order.

A judge decided that Hugo should be put down.