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Animal Welfare Licences

You will need a licence for the following activities: -

  • boarding for cats and dogs (including home boarding and dog day care)
  • breeding of dogs
  • hiring out of horses
  • selling animals as pets
  • keeping or training animals for exhibition

If they are undertaken in the course of a business, this includes whether you: -

  1.  make any sale or carry on the activity with a view to making a profit; or
  2.  earn any commission or fee from the activity.

These activities are governed by The Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018

Under the legislation, there are general conditions for every type of licence covering: -

  • licence display
  • records
  • use, number and type of animal
  • staffing
  • suitable environment and diet
  • monitoring behaviour and training of animals
  • animal handling and interactions
  • protection from pain, suffering, injury and disease
  • emergencies

There are specific conditions in the schedules to the regulations in relation to each activity and these may be found in the links below: -

There are also guidance notes for the conditions.

Please see our list of fees before applying for a licence.  A separate fee is applicable for each licensable activity, therefore multiple activities require multiple fees.

Under certain circumstances, you will not be able to apply for a licence if you have had a licence revoked or been disqualified.

Please note, it is the applicant's responsibility to ensure that suitable planning permission is in place, as this does not form part of the animal welfare licensing legislation.

Registers

You can check if an activity in the Maldon District is licensed by us, by viewing the following registers: