Breeding of Dogs Act 1973
Breeding and Sale of Dogs (Welfare) Act 1999
A dog breeder’s licence is needed by anyone who keeps a bitch at any premises, where the bitch has a litter of puppies and four or more other litters are born to bitches kept by the person:
- At the premises
- Elsewhere
- As a part of a breeding arrangement with another person.
Online application and payment available
Downloadable application form
Licence conditions
Fees and Charges
Additional Information
Animal Welfare Act 2006
As you may be aware, the law that protects animals is changing. The Animal Welfare Act 2006 came into effect on 6 April 2007. This Act brings together and modernises animal welfare legislation, some of which dates from 1911. ;The Animal Welfare Act 2006 will:
- Introduce a 'duty of care' on people to ensure the needs of any animal for which they are responsible
- Create a new offence of failing to provide for the needs of an animal in your care
- Place more emphasis on owners and keepers who will need to understand their responsibilities and take all reasonable steps to provide for the needs of their animals.
Further details of how the Act may affect you can be found on Defra's and the RSPCA's websites.
Note: The above documents are in Portable Document Format (PDF) and therefore require a suitable reader to view them. A reader can be downloaded free from the Adobe website (full instructions for downloading the reader are provided on the site).