# If there were no pet shop licences needed........



## TSKA Rory Matier (May 27, 2007)

How would this affect the market?

Be it retail as in shops or private sector?

Opinions........

Thanks

Rory


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## Andy (Jul 27, 2005)

I dont see it affecting things too much pet shop licences are that easy to get these days judging by the state of some shops i have been to. I would be more concerned if the law changed that made all internet shops have to have a licence (which my local authority already insists).


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## This is my Clone (Jul 8, 2007)

I agree, the current scheme seems to do nothing to ensure the well-being of the animals. If anything there should be more regulation of pet shops. 
Even one person employed by the council, could check every pet shop in a county with fairly regular visits. 
I would want this person to make sure the basic health requirements of the animals they keep are met. There are differing opinions of what the best way to do things are for each species, but as long as the animals are healthy, the Vivs are clean, and the conditions within are appropiate, it would force petshops to change.


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## sami (Oct 23, 2006)

that's a great idea. 

but would they do it?? councils are generally lazy unfortunately. but better checks of the animals would be the best thing for pet keepers. 

it would improve standards in the shops, and make for generally healthier pets. which can only be a good thing for everyone! 

those pet shop keepers that would be against something like that would only have something to hide. If we had a shop, i would welcome checks as regularly as a month apart. 
it would give more confidence to people that the shop knew what they were doing. 

and for the original question ~ 
if there were no licences needed.. i think it would be terrible. there would be more people out there, wanting to make a few quid, by just ramming things in cages, and selling.. at least the legislation puts off the people who can't be bothered with things like that... (oh no, we need a licence? i'll pass.. sounds too much like hard work) which means that things like filling water bowls etc is too much work.. so the animals suffer. 

at least it stops the majority of people who don't know what they're doing.. it just requires more checks, and enforcement. 

sami


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## neep_neep (Oct 18, 2007)

Oh gawd, it doesn't really bear thinking about!

I agree that pet shop licenses need to become far more tightly regulated, getting rid of licenses would have a terrible detrimental affect to animal welfare.

At least with the current licenses there are stocking densities, specification that mammals must be weaned before sale etc. etc. 
Although there are some unscrupulous shops who may ignore these already, at least if somebody complains to the council then the shop will be reprimanded in some way. With no license to specify these things, then shops will just get away with all sorts of awful things 

Although councils generally do 'once-a-year' checks on pet shops, I am undecided as to whether this is enough. 

Also bear in mind that pet shop licenses are generally required by large-scale commercial breeders - so if there were no pet shop licenses, this would mean that these breeders would then go un-noticed and unregulated, so they could throw stocking densities to the four winds...

Private sector, I think that the abolition of pet shop licenses would result in more people deciding to breed purely to sell on - the increased number of pet shops would results in an increased demand for animals, and if a commercial breeder no longer needs a license then allsorts of people would jump on the breeding bandwagon.


Agreed with the above posts...pet shop licenses just aren't strict enough as things stand at the moment...I really can't bring myself to imagine how bad things would be if licenses were no longer needed.


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## Faith (May 17, 2007)

I have to agree with Sami and Neep_neep
It would be horrid if there were no licences needed for pet shops  can you imagin if we didnt need driving licences for example how many kids would get their hands of a few cars and cause miles of pile ups on the roads all the lives that would be lost etc? hundereds if not thousands 

We need pet shop licenses i do agree that some councils need to re invent the license conditions like the checks etc. Our council are pretty tight on licensing there are so many clauses with our council they seem to love the pets more than the people lol


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