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Animal welfare licences
If you carry out one of these activities as a business in Sheffield, where a profit or fee is involved, you will need a licence from us:
- provision of boarding for dogs in kennels
- provision of boarding for cats in a cattery
- provision of home boarding for dogs
- provision of day care for dogs
- breeding of dogs
- hiring out of horses or donkeys etc for riding
- keeping or training animals for exhibition
- selling animals as pets
You are strongly advised to consult the regulations and updated guidance documents to ensure your business complies with new licensing requirements.
Inspecting premises
The site of the licensable activity must be inspected to assess whether it is likely to meet the licence conditions for that type of licence.
Inspections are carried out by the Environmental Protection Service and appointments are made with applicants once we have received your application.
Our officers can take enforcement action if unlicensed activities are found or if licence conditions are not met. This includes suspension, revocation and prosecution.
Risk rating
Following each inspection, all premises under the new regulations (with the exception of “Keeping or Training Animals for Exhibition” where all licences are issued for 3 years) will be now risk rated.
Premises will be assessed as low or high risk and given a Star Rating from 1 to 5 depending on welfare standards and taking into account a range of factors set out in the regulations.
This system will be used to determine the length of the licence and the frequency of inspections during the term of the licence.
Fees
The regulations allow us to charge a fee to the applicant to cover ‘reasonable anticipated costs’. This includes costs for processing applications, issuing licences, inspecting premises, and enforcement.
Currently as part of development of the new licensing regime the fees charged for each type of licence is being reviewed to determine the reasonable anticipated costs and may be subject to change.
The fees charged for each type of licence will be provided upon application.
| Consent Type | Cost |
|---|---|
| Pet shop licence – large store over 280 m2 | £591 |
| Pet shop licence | £465.70 |
| Breeding and sale of dogs | £609 |
| Animal boarding establishment – cats or dogs over 20 or combined | £628 |
| Animal boarding establishment for cats or dogs | £591 |
| Riding establishment – over 10 horses | £628 |
| Riding establishment – under 10 horses | £609 |
| Performing and exhibition of animals | £591 |