Six-week public consultation to be held about Crawley Borough Council’s animal licensing policy

The draft policy, which is due to be adopted in February 2025, covers a number of areas in which people or businesses would need to be licensed.

They include: selling animals as pets, providing or arranging for the provision of boarding for cats or dogs – including day care, hiring out horses, breeding dogs, and keeping or training animals for exhibition.

The policy was discussed during a meeting of the licensing committee on Monday (November 11).

The council’s team leader for health, safety & licensing said: “One of the reasons for the policy is to raise the profile of the activity, so we’re not seeing the frequency of people buying puppies and kittens and so on in unregulated and unlicensed settings.”

She added that members of the public should be encouraged to use legitimate means, not only for pets, but for things such as animal day care, riding, and the use of animals at parties – ie pony parties or reptile parties.

The consultation will start in December.

To find licensed breeders or anyone else with an animal licence, log on to crawley.gov.uk/business/licensing/animal-licences.

Anyone with concerns about animal welfare or that an animal provider is not properly licensed can contact the council.