Pet shop licence (selling animals as pets)
You need a licence to sell animals as pets. This applies if your business is based at home, or you sell animals online.
You cannot:
- sell animals as pets in public places, such as a market stall.
- sell puppies or kittens if you have not bred them yourself.
You do not need a licence to sell a small number of offspring of pets that you have bred, for example, as a hobby. However, if you do this often or with many animals you may be classed as a business and will need a licence.
The cost of a licence is £560. We will only ask you to pay the fee once we are satisfied we have all the required documentation.
Before you apply read the government’s selling animals as pets conditions in full.
Licence conditions
When you apply you will be prompted to upload your procedures or provide information to prove that you can meet the licence conditions. This includes:
- Ofqual level 2 higher, or clear evidence of knowledge and experience
- Written training policy for all staff and evidence of staff continuous learning and development and annual appraisal documents.
- Cleaning procedures
- Feeding regimes procedure
- Feeding live vertebrate justification (if applicable)
- Minimum water quality testing records (if applicable)
- Transportation procedure (if applicable)
- Monitoring and ensuring the health and welfare of all the animal’s procedure
- The death or escape of an animal procedure
- Emergency procedures including but not limited to fire and extreme weather
- Veterinarian details
- Register of animals and groups of fish on the premises. Must include full name of animal supplier, animals’ sex and age, vet treatment, date of birth (or the date of acquisition by the licence holder), date of sale by the licence holder, date of death (if applicable).
This list is not exhaustive and extra documents may be required - read the government’s selling animals as pets conditions in full for details of all documented procedures.
If you don't upload this information when you apply, you must provide it later. We need this information before we can approve your application and star rating. The licensing officer can help with any procedures you are unsure of.
How to apply
Read our privacy notice which tells you how we use your data.
What happens next?
We will review your application within 21 days. If you have not provided your procedures or proof that you can meet the licence conditions with your online application, we will ask you to send these to us.
When we are satisfied we have all the required information we will contact you to pay the licence fee in full.
Once you have paid, we will arrange for an inspector to visit your premises to check that you meet the conditions of the licence.
Following this inspection and if all the minimum standards are met, we will issue your licence. This will tell you how long your licence will last and what your star rating is, based on the government criteria. We aim to issue the licence within 10 weeks of receiving the application.
If we do not approve your licence you will receive a partial refund of £80. The application fee is non-refundable once the application process has started.
Appeals
If we have made a decision to refuse, vary, suspend or revoke a licence, you can appeal to the General Regulatory Chamber of the First Tier Tribunal.
Star ratings
After inspection, each premise will receive a star rating between 1 and 5, with 5 being the highest rating. To achieve the best possible rating, you will need to have covered all the standard conditions, including all required consents, policies and procedures.
To meet the highest rating, certain higher standards must be met. Depending on the species being sold, there are different higher standards to achieve. To view the higher standards, read the government’s selling animals as pets conditions in full.
Licence variation
To vary your licence please email Environmental.Health@liverpool.gov.uk with your proposals. We will then contact you to pay the licence variation fee.
On receipt of payment, we will review your proposals and arrange a site visit if this is required, depending on the variation.
If you need further information, please contact us.