Animal Licensing Wales

Applications to sell animals as pets require the following documents:

  • Application form
    • Plan of the premises
    • Fire evacuation plan
    • Risk assessment

Dog breeding applications require the following documents:
    • Application form
    • Enhancement and enrichment plan
    • Puppy socialisation plan
    • Health report from your veterinary surgeon
    • Plan of the premises
    • Fire evacuation plan
    • Risk assessment

Before applying, you must also make sure that, where appropriate, planning permission is in place for any buildings that make up the premises.

Once the full application and fee have been received by the Authority, an inspection will be carried out at the premises to check that all conditions required by the Authority are being met. The inspecting Officer(s), possibly accompanied by a veterinary surgeon at their request, will check that the animals are and will continue to be suitably accommodated, fed, exercised and protected from disease and fire.

Apply for a licence via your local council, search for their contact details: HERE

If you are a dog breeder in Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion, a new online licensing system for Wales is being piloted in your area.

Between September 2nd and November 1st 2024, if you're applying for a new licence or renewing an existing one in the pilot authorities, visit the Animal Licensing Wales (ALW) website. ALW officers will assist you with the application process.

Scan the QR code for more information.

A fee will be applicable and will be set by each Local Authority.

A licence can be issued for up to 12 months.

As a licensed premises you should aim to set an example when advertising your animals and being a business, you must be mindful of consumer protection.

This should also apply when advertising on social media.

    • Include your licence number and the Local Authority that you are registered with
    • As a business you cannot ask for a non-refundable deposit
    • All adverts should include contact details via phone or email

As a licensed dog breeder, we also recommend you include:
    • A clear photo of the Dam with puppies and more information including the name, age, and any health testing
    • Tell your buyers that puppies can be seen with Dam and Sire (if appropriate)
    • Sire’s information including a picture, name, age, and any health testing
    • Provide details of breed requirements, exercise level, grooming and type of home they would suit
    • Include when the puppies will be ready and what age that will be
    • Include details of vaccination, worming, flea treatment and microchipping
    • Think about puppy packs and list what they will include, consider a feeding schedule for transition onto new food
    • Consider a puppy sales contract and socialisation plan
    • Include information about yourself and your experience
    • Information on socialisation methods, plans moving forward and if you use puppy culture
    • Remember all sales should take place with the purchaser at your premises
    • Be honest as to whether the puppies are kept in a kennel or in your home

The Companies Act 2006 lays down what and how information about your business should be disclosed to consumers.

Limited Companies
If your business is a limited company, the following information must be included on all invoices, contracts, letter headed paperwork and websites:
    • Limited Company Name
    • Address of Registered Office
    • Company Number
    • The place of Company Registration, ie England and Wales
    • Contact telephone number
    • Email address
    • Registered VAT number (if applicable)
    • Clear prices (on website)

Sole Traders and Partnerships
Where a sole trader or partnership carries on a business under a name that is not that of the proprietor or partners their details must be fully disclosed to consumers and suppliers in order to make it clear who they are doing business with.

The information that is required to be disclosed is:
    • The full name of the proprietor or all of the partners, and
    • An address at which the business can be contacted and have legal documents formally served on it

The required information must be:
    • Displayed in a prominent position in all business premises where customers and suppliers have access
    • Given immediately in writing to any customer or supplier who requests business details information
    • Included legibly on all business documents:
• Letters
• Written orders for goods or services
• Invoices, receipts and contracts
• Written demands for payment
• Business websites (a requirement under the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002)

Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013

Off Premises Contracts
If you agree a contract in a consumer’s home or away from your business premises you must provide a cancellation notice. It is a criminal offence not to supply a cancellation notice in this situation.

A cancellation notice period is 14 days and can be provided either by email or paper copy. The 14 days begin the day after the day on which the animal comes into the physical possession of the consumer.

It is important to note that if you do not provide the cancellation notice when agreeing a contract in a consumer’s home, as well as it being a criminal offence, the contract could be unenforceable, meaning the consumer may not have to pay.

Distance Contracts
You must also provide a 14-day cancellation notice if you negotiate and agree a contract (sale) with a consumer via an “organised” means of distance communication, eg by telephone, post or online. This provision may apply when you take a deposit via the telephone or email for an animal advertised on your website, even if the balance is paid face-to-face. However, the contract must involve an organised scheme for selling pets. A “one-off” sale of an animal via the telephone does not constitute an organised scheme for selling pets.

The Cancellation Notice
Where a cancellation notice is required, it must be provided in the prescribed format. However, the customer is not obliged to use the cancellation form you provide, but must cancel in writing, either by posting, hand delivering or emailing their intention to cancel.

Consumers are entitled, by law, to expect that pets they buy from you conform to the contract. This means that the animals you sell should be:
    • Of satisfactory quality, ie generally healthy
    • Fit for their intended purpose (and any purpose you told a customer they were suitable for, eg breeding, showing)
    • As described, eg Cocker Spaniel, Kennel Club Registered, "raised in family home"

Are consumers entitled to a refund, repair or replacement?
Yes, if the animals do not conform to the contract, then consumers have the legal right to one of the following remedies:
    • A full or part refund
    • A replacement or repair, eg new puppy, vet fees etc
    • A price reduction
    • Compensation for losses incurred, eg vet fees

The remedy that you are required to give depends on the circumstances of each sale, eg how long the consumer has owned the animal prior to the problem being identified.

However, consumers do not have the legal right to any remedy for problems they knew about before they bought the pet, eg a genetic health defect specifically brought to the attention of the consumer prior to purchase.

Time for action
The law sets a time limit for consumers to take legal action. In England and Wales this time limit is generally six years from sale or delivery.

The short-term right to reject
If, when it is supplied, an animal is not as described, not of satisfactory quality or fit for purpose, there is a short period during which the consumer is entitled to reject it. This short-term right to reject animals lasts for 30 days, which begins when the customer takes possession/delivery of the pet.

When a consumer rejects an animal he/she can claim a refund and must return the pet. A refund must be given without undue delay and in any event within 14 days of the seller agreeing that the consumer is entitled to a refund.

Repair or replacement
When there is a breach of contract, but the consumer has lost or chooses not to exercise his/her right to reject the animal, he/she will be entitled, in the first instance, to claim damages (eg entitlement to vet costs) or a replacement.

Where damages or a replacement is claimed, the seller must do this at no cost to the consumer, within a reasonable time and without causing significant inconvenience. If damages or replacement is not available or is unsuccessful, or is not provided within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience to the consumer, then he/she can claim a price reduction or reject the animal.

A price reduction must be an appropriate amount, which will depend on all the circumstances of the claim. It can be any amount up to the whole price.

If the consumer rejects the animal, they are entitled to a refund. This refund may be reduced to take account of any use the consumer has had from the pet.

Note that when an animal is rejected within six months of supply, in most cases, the consumer is entitled to a full refund.

The burden of proof
If the consumer chooses damages, replacement, price reduction or the final right to reject, and if the defect is discovered within six months of delivery, it is assumed that the fault was there at the time of delivery unless the trader can prove otherwise. If more than six months have passed, the consumer has to prove the defect was there at the time of delivery.

They must also prove the defect was there at the time of delivery if they exercise the short-term right to reject goods.

Unfair contract terms
Examples of potentially unfair contract terms:
    • Terms excluding liability for breaches of contract, eg "No guarantee is given as to the age/health of any puppy"
    • Excessive charges and disproportionate sanctions, eg "In the event of the purchaser cancelling the contract, or failing to take delivery of the animal, the full deposit 50% paid will be forfeited to the seller" 

The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (known as the CPRs) control unfair practices used by traders when dealing with consumers and create criminal offences for traders that breach them. This legislation has replaced the Trade Descriptions Act 1968.

Fair terms for your customers (publishing.service.gov.uk)

What is prohibited?
Effectively the CPRs prohibit trading practices that are unfair to consumers. There are four different types of practices to consider:
    • Practices prohibited in all circumstances
    • Misleading actions and omissions
    • Aggressive practices
    • General duty not to trade unfairly

Practices prohibited in all circumstances – these include:
    • False endorsements or authorisations:
    • False claims of membership of trade associations or signatory of a code of conduct, eg Kennel Club Accreditation
    • Misleading context or effect:
    • Failing to make it clear that a person is actually a breeder or trader or creating the impression they are a consumer, eg failing to indicate trade status when selling an animal
    • Creating the impression that an animal can legally be sold when in fact it cannot, eg a dangerous dog

Misleading actions and omissions
The CPRs prohibit "misleading actions" and "misleading omissions" that cause, or are likely to cause, the average consumer to take a different transactional decision. That is, any decision taken by the consumer concerning the purchasing of the animal or whether to exercise a contractual right in relation to the animal, including decisions not to act. This does not only relate to pre-shopping but includes after-sales and continues for the lifetime of the pet.

Misleading actions
Regulation 5 of the CPRs prohibits giving false information to, or deceiving consumers. A misleading action occurs when a practice misleads through the information it contains or its deceptive presentation and causes, or is likely to cause, the average consumer to take a different transactional decision.

There are many examples of misleading actions:
    • Misleading information generally, advertising a puppy as Kennel Club registered when it is not
    • Pictorially misrepresenting how an animal has been reared, giving the impression that a pet has been reared in a domestic environment, when in fact it has been reared in outside buildings
    • Failing to honour commitments made in a code of conduct, eg Kennel Club for dogs or the GCCF for cats
    • Providing false information regarding the nature, attributes and rights of the trader, eg qualifications

Misleading omissions
Regulation 6 of the CPRs prohibits giving insufficient information about a product or animal. It is a breach of the CPRs to fail to give consumers the information they need to make an informed choice in relation to a product if this would cause, or be likely to cause, the average consumer to take a different transactional decision, eg a dog breeder must provide information regarding any corrective surgery or treatment for a hernia etc.

Aggressive practices
Regulation 7 of the CPRs prohibits aggressive commercial practices that intimidate or exploit consumers, restricting their ability to make free or informed choices. In order for an aggressive practice to be unfair it must cause, or be likely to cause, the average consumer to take a different transactional decision.

A commercial practice is aggressive if it
    • significantly impairs, or is likely to significantly impair, the average consumer's freedom of choice or conduct in relation to the product through the use of harassment, coercion or undue influence, and thereby causes them to take a different transactional decision

Note "coercion" includes the use of physical force, and "undue influence" means exploiting a position of power in relation to the consumer so as to apply pressure, even without the use of (or threatening to use) physical force, in a way that significantly limits the consumer's ability to make an informed decision, eg insisting that a consumer purchases pet food/pet insurance with the animal, or advising consumers that they need to make a decision there and then as another customer is coming to view it.

General duty not to trade unfairly
Regulation 3 is called "Prohibition of unfair commercial practices", which effectively means failing to act in accordance with reasonable expectations of acceptable trading practice.

The regulation prohibits practices that:
    • Contravene the requirements of professional diligence, defined as the standard of special skill and care that a trader may reasonably be expected to exercise towards consumers, which is commensurate with either honest market practice in the trader's field of activity or the general principle of good faith in the trader's field of activity
    • Materially distort the economic behaviour of the average consumer (or are likely to) with regard to the product – that is, appreciably to impair the average consumer's ability to make an informed decision, thereby causing them to take a transactional decision that they would not have taken otherwise, eg selling a Border Collie/Springer Spaniel to a consumer in the knowledge that he/she lives in a small flat.

To mislead another trader via an advert regarding the characteristics (nature) of an animal can constitute a criminal offence. An advert is defined within the legislation as any form of representation which is made in connection with a trade or business in order to promote the supply of a product, eg falsely describing a puppy on an invoice to a pet shop.

Please note: This information is not an authoritative interpretation of the law and is intended only as a brief guide. Any legislation referred to, while still current, may have been amended from the form in which it was originally enacted.