Animal Breeding Establishments

Any business wanting to operate as an animal breeding establishment for dogs must be licensed with the local authority in whose area the premises are located as required by the:

Breeding of Dogs Act 1973 Act
Breeding of Dogs Act 1991 Act
Breeding and Sale of Dogs (Welfare) Act 1999.

How to apply

The current application fee for an Animal Breeding Establishment licence is set at £115 although premises already associated with an animal boarding establishment pay a reduced additional £37 fee. There will also be additional vets fees that you will have to pay as part of the licensing process.

The annual licensing period runs from 1 January to 31 December, with applications received part-way through the year covering the rest of that calendar year.

Please note that breeding establishments can only operate once in receipt of a valid licence.

On the death of a licence holder, his/her licence passes onto their personal representative for three months from the day of their death and then expires.

Matters for consideration

Once in receipt of your application, we make a number of considerations before deciding whether to grant your application, including:

That dogs will at all times be kept in accommodation suitable as respects construction, size of quarters, number of occupants, exercising facilities, temperature, lighting, ventilation and cleanliness.
That dogs will be adequately supplied with suitable food, drink and bedding material, adequately exercised, and visited at suitable intervals.
That all reasonable precautions will be taken to prevent and control the spread among dogs of infectious or contagious diseases.
That appropriate steps will be taken for the protection of the dogs in case of fire or other emergency.
That all steps will be taken to secure that the dogs will be provided with suitable food, drink and bedding material and adequately exercised when being transported to or from breeding establishments.
That bitches are not mated if they are less than one year old.
That bitches do not give birth to more than six litters of puppies each .
That bitches do not give birth to puppies before the end of the twelve months beginning with the day on which they last gave birth to puppies.
That accurate records in a form prescribed by regulations are kept at the premises and made available for inspection by authorised officers.

Conditions

On granting a licence, we must specify conditions as appropriate to achieve the objectives specified in the legislation.

Guidance and model conditions for dog breeding establishments have been issued jointly by the British Veterinary Association; the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health and the Local Government Association.