Animal licensing policy

The Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018 has changed the way animal-related businesses are inspected and licensed.

New regulations

The new regulations define the animal-based activities that need licences as:

• selling animals as pets. This includes keeping animals in a business with a view to them being so sold or resold
• providing or arranging accommodation for other people's cats or dogs. On any premises where the accommodation is a purpose of the business
• hiring out horses for riding, instruction in riding, or both
• breeding three or more litters of puppies in any 12-month period. Breeding dogs and advertising a business of selling dogs
• keeping or training animals for exhibition. This could be for educational or entertainment purposes, either to any audience attending in person, or by recording

Read our  Animal Licensing Policy (PDF) [267KB] .