Environmental Health - Animal Welfare
Pet Shops - Licensing & Inspection
All pet shops in the Basildon District must be licensed by Basildon Council's Environmental Health Services. | |
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The definition of animal so far as the Pet Animals Act 1951 is concerned is “any vertebrate” which explains why fish are included and insects are excluded from pet shop licensing regulations.
We inspect pet shops regularly to ensure that animal health and welfare conditions are maintained to nationally accepted standards, which are incorporated in the licence conditions.
Please read: Standard Conditions for a Pet Shop 
Downloadable: Licence Application Form - to Keep a Pet Shop
Please Note - It is currently an offence to sell an animal to a child less than 12 years of age.
There has recently been much controversy over the interpretation of law so far as animal “fairs” and 1-2 day events are concerned. It is apparently not the intention of central government to prevent such events but rather to regulate them.
Until such time as the anticipated new legislation is enacted, we will continue to be guided by our legal advisers.
Although we cannot legally require it, we encourage shops to sell only captive-bred animals and not imported specimens, taken from the wild.
The sale of puppies and kittens from pet shops is discouraged although the law currently permits this.
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