Animal Licenses
Case reference FOI2026/00695
Received 22 March 2026
Published 8 April 2026
Request
I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information, please:
1. If you do not already publish this information publicly and in an up-to-date format, please could you confirm how many dog breeding businesses your local authority currently licences (as of today’s date) pursuant to the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018?
2. Please provide a breakdown by licence of the number of
1. breeding female adult dogs,
2. breeding male adult dogs,
3. litters of puppies (please indicate the number permitted at any one time and/or within a twelve-month period)
4. other (non-breeding) dogs specified on each dog breeding licence and,
5. the star rating and
6. expiry date of each dog breeding licence currently in effect.
3. If you do not already publish this information publicly and in an up-to-date format, please could you confirm how many licensed pet sellers your local authority currently licences (as of today’s date) pursuant to the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018?
4. With reference to your response to question 3, how many licensed pet sellers are currently permitted to sell:
a. Puppies/Dogs
b. Kittens/Cats
c. Rabbits
5. With reference to your response to question 4, please provide a breakdown by licence of the number of
1. puppies/dogs,
2. kittens/cats and,
3. rabbits specified on each licence and,
4. the star rating and,
5. expiry date of each licence currently in effect.
6. Since the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018 came into effect
a. how many applications has your council received for a licence to sell cats, and
b. how many of these were granted?
7. If any applicant was not granted a licence, what were the reasons and how many were declined for each reason? - You can indicate multiple answers:
• Concerns about animal welfare
• Unsuitable premises
• Application withdrawn
• Not within council area
• Didn’t meet threshold for a licence
• Application incomplete
• Other – please specify
8. Please indicate which of the following statements apply by indicating yes or no for each statement and stating the number of licences:
- Have you revoked the licence of any cat sellers in your area? If yes, how many?
- Have you renewed the licence of any cat sellers in your area? If yes, how many?
- What is the role of the person/s who carries out licensing inspections for your local authority?
Response
I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information, please:
1. If you do not already publish this information publicly and in an up-to-date format, please could you confirm how many dog breeding businesses your local authority currently licences (as of today’s date) pursuant to the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018?
Answer: This information is publically available on our council website and can be viewed via the following link:
As such we consider this information to be exempt under Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 because it is reasonably accessible to you via other means. Please take this letter as a refusal notice under S17 of the Act.
2. Please provide a breakdown by licence of the number of
1. breeding female adult dogs,
2. breeding male adult dogs,
3. litters of puppies (please indicate the number permitted at any one time and/or within a twelve-month period)
4. other (non-breeding) dogs specified on each dog breeding licence and,
5. the star rating and
6. expiry date of each dog breeding licence currently in effect.
Answer: The star rating (point 5) and expiry date (point 6) information is publically available on our council website as per the link provided in question 1 above.
However, we consider the remaining information (points 1 to 4) requested above to be exempt under Section 31 (1) (a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, which exempts information if disclosure would, or would be likely, to prejudice the prevention or detection of crime.
As noted in ICO decision notices IC-271386-87H8 May 2024 (https://ico.org.uk/media2/migrated/decision-notices/4029674/ic-271386-y7h8.pdf), IC-49650-Z2G6 (https://cy.ico.org.uk/media2/migrated/decision-notices/2619587/ic-49650-z2g6.pdf) and IC-50621-M0Y2 (https://ico.org.uk/media2/migrated/decision-notices/2619953/ic-50621-m0y2.pdf), crime related to targeted dog theft has increased over recent years and placing information such as number of dogs, address / location of the setting (particularly in remote rural areas), etc., in the public domain would enable criminals to target specific premises, particularly where dogs are being stolen to order.
This exemption is subject to the public interest test, and accordingly I have weighed up the reasons for and against disclosure as follows:
Reasons for disclosure in the public interest:
Openness and transparency regarding the information held on Breeding Dog licenses.
Reasons against disclosure in the public interest:
Disclosure of information under the Freedom of Information Act is essentially a disclosure to the world at large, not just to the individual who requested it. Puppies can be sold for hundreds or thousands of pounds depending on the breed, and so are very valuable, as are breeding bitches. Disclosure of the additional information being requested would reveal the most valuable of these animals, which would make them a target for theft.
We do not include this extra detail on our website for these reasons as the risk of criminality/dog thefts is higher in these cases.
Taking the above into account I find the balance in favour of non-disclosure of the requested information in the public interest. Please take this letter as a refusal notice under S17 of the Act.
3. If you do not already publish this information publicly and in an up-to-date format, please could you confirm how many licensed pet sellers your local authority currently licences (as of today’s date) pursuant to the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018?
Answer: This information is publically available on our council website and can be viewed via the following link:
As such we consider this information to be exempt under Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 because it is reasonably accessible to you via other means. Please take this letter as a refusal notice under S17 of the Act.
4. With reference to your response to question 3, how many licensed pet sellers are currently permitted to sell:
a. Puppies/Dogs
Answer: 0.
b. Kittens/Cats
Answer: 0.
c. Rabbits
Answer: 1
5. With reference to your response to question 4, please provide a breakdown by licence of the number of
1. puppies/dogs,
2. kittens/cats and,
3. rabbits specified on each licence and,
4. the star rating and,
5. expiry date of each licence currently in effect.
Answer: Please see the table below:
|
Licence |
Puppies/Dogs Numbers |
Kittens/Cats Numbers |
Rabbit Numbers |
|
N-PET11 |
0 |
0 |
24 |
Please be advised the star rating and expiry date information is publically available on our council website and can be viewed via the following link:
As such we consider this information to be exempt under Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 because it is reasonably accessible to you via other means. Please take this letter as a refusal notice under S17 of the Act.
6. Since the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018 came into effect:
a. how many applications has your council received for a licence to sell cats, and
Answer: 2.
b. how many of these were granted?
Answer: 0.
7. If any applicant was not granted a licence, what were the reasons and how many were declined for each reason? - You can indicate multiple answers:
• Concerns about animal welfare
• Unsuitable premises
• Application withdrawn
• Not within council area
• Didn’t meet threshold for a licence
• Application incomplete
• Other – please specify
Answer: 2 applications were not/have not been granted for the following reasons:
1 applicant didn’t meet the threshold for a licence.
1 application is still being processed (recently received).
8. Please indicate which of the following statements apply by indicating yes or no for each statement and stating the number of licences:
- Have you revoked the licence of any cat sellers in your area? If yes, how many?
Answer: No.
- Have you renewed the licence of any cat sellers in your area? If yes, how many?
Answer: No.
- What is the role of the person/s who carries out licensing inspections for your local authority?
Answer: The Service Area have advised we have Animal Licensing Officers who ensure compliance with Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018, The Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976 (Modification) (No.2) Order 2007, Zoo Licensing Act 1981 and The Animal Welfare (Primate Licences) (England) Regulations 2024.
Officers complete the administration work before and after applications come in as well as carrying out the inspection.
Officers are responsible for investigating complaints or enquiries to do with licenced and unlicensed individuals.
Officers also do enforcement work around unlicensed businesses and individuals.
Documents
This is Herefordshire Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
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