Puppies in Pet shops

Does anyone know whether this is legal?

A local pet shop which is an absolutely ghastly place, is yet again selling puppies. They advertised on a free ad site with the tag


'We are advertising these puppies for a lady who does not have internet'.

This is something I have seen from them before, and is obviously a fabrication.

It's legal as long as their licence states they can have puppies.
Go in and ask to see their licence

From Defra ...
The Pet Animals Act 1951 (as amended in 1983) - protects the welfare of animals sold as pets. The Act requires any person keeping a pet shop to be licensed by the local authority. Before granting a licence the local authority must be satisfied that the animals are kept in accommodation that is both suitable and clean; that they are supplied with appropriate food and drink; and are adequately protected from disease and fire. The local authority may attach any conditions to the licence, may inspect the licensed premises at all reasonable times and may refuse a licence if the conditions at the premises are unsatisfactory or if the terms of the licence are not being complied with.

Local authorities are responsible for enforcing the law in this area and anyone who has reason to believe that a pet shop is keeping animals in inadequate conditions should raise the matter with the local authority who will decide what action to take within the range of its powers.

Under s.2 pets cannot be sold in the street, including on barrows and markets.

A pet shop licence applies to animals actually sold from the shop i.e physically on the premises. It is VERY rare for dogs or cats to be sold actually on a pet shop premises - I think it is less than 1% - (this figure came to light recently after the head of the British Vets made a speech deploring the way dogs are sold in pet shops similar to supermarkets). Most of the shops that do sell dogs and cats do so because they have held a specific licence for many years and they are (usually) tightly inspected with the shop needing to have space for exercise, sleep etc. People who breed from home are rarely inspected and we all hear the horrible things about puppy farms.
As to the advert on a free ad site - How does this link back to the shop? If the prospective buyer is guided to the shop and the dog can be viewed and then actually sold within the shop premises, then that would be against the pet shop's licence and report it immediately.
I think the sooner the way dogs and cats are sold is regulated - preferably not by the government but by a dog organisation with some clout - the sooner the better.

This shop often has kittens for sale in the shop, & a friend of my sons bought a pup from them 2 years ago that was in a pen in the shop. The free ad shows the pups clearly pictured in a pet shop.

you could always keep popping in there, waiting for them to make a slip up orfail to meet the standards needed and them report them to the rspca. Sadly if they have a license it is still legal to sell them.

There is a certain big name store in London which i visited last year, which sells chihuhua puppies at £2500 each, and english bulldog puppies at over £4000 each.... Ok, the puppies were in good condition, but were in a room behind a glass screen, with only a couple of toys and a bed. Sadly, not the life for a puppy if you ask me... Although it could be worse i guess.

Sadly as you all know most of these puppies would have came from horrendous puppy mills, i cant actually talk about how awful these places are without upsetting myself so we wont go there. We all know the facts. I'm not so sure about the big london store, i would like to think they come from genuine caring breeders, who have bred for the health and wellbeing of the animals. - Although to then allow glamorous pet stores to sell them.... makes me think twice.

They don't, it's well known that the pups they sell come from puppy factories as do most pups sold in pet shops.

I recently went to a gross puppy supermarket type place in Manchester.

I was pretty shocked by it all; the cages were dirty and the puppies had very minimal stimulation (a box for a bed, and some had 1 toy).

They are 'pet lovers registered, not for show'. Another way of saying, not registered by any real body and too unhealthy/not to type to be.

I was a bit saddened to see people happily buying them, they are sprayed with perfume before being sold, clearly to get rid of the dirty stench.
Without wishing to be patronising, I don't think people would buy puppies from places like this if they understood where they came from and what constitutes a good breeder.

If the pet shop actually has kittens or puppies in the shop then it will say they can sell these on their Pet Shop Licence which by law should be displayed in the shop. If the licence is not on display or doesn't clearly say that the shop can sell puppies or kittens then phone the local Council and speak to their licensing department or Environmental Health department (councils use different departments to inspect pet shops). Pet shop inspections differ from area to area and in my opinion there should be a govt led standardisation - the details of the inspection come from, I think, the 1950's and only updated by the Animal Welfare Act. It takes a lot for a council to shut down unscrupulous people selling animals and more needs to done. If the shop in Manchester is the one I think it is then there is an ongoing campaign to have it shut both publilly and within the pet trade.
This is a link to the reaction to the speech by the BVA chairman earlier this year.

I have ben banned off their [a social network] page because I kept posting an antipuppy farming video. They kept removing it then blocked me.
Ops