Breeding Welfare
Under Schedule 6 of the Animal Welfare Act, the license holder must:
Advertise & Sales
License holder must:
- Not offer a dog for sale for which they have not bred
- Ensure any equipment sold with the dog is suitable
- Ensure the buyers are aware of the age, sex and veterinary record of the dog
- May not sell a puppy under the age of 8 weeks
- Only show puppies to prospective purchasers with their biological mother
Dogs being advertised must:
- Include the breeding license number
- specify the local authority that issues the license
- Include a recognisable photo of the dog being advertised
- Display the age of the dog being advertised
Environment
Each dog must be able to:
- Have sufficient space to move around and lie down without touching a wall or another dog
- Have access to an outdoor exercise area that is separate from their sleeping area
- Have constant access to a sleeping area
- Each adult dog must have access to its bed
- Have access to a sleeping area that is clean, comfortable, warm and free from draughts
For breeding bitches:
- May not be transported earlier than 48 hours after whelping except to a veterinarian, if the veterinarian is unable to attend the premises.
- Have access to a whelping area with a suitable bed
- Whelping areas must be maintained at appropriate temperatures (26-28 degrees centigrade) and must include an area the bitch can move away from the heat source.
- May not be transported later than 54 days after a successful mating except to a veterinarian.
Diet
- Puppies must be weaned as soon as they are a suitable age to do so
- Ensure each puppy receives the appropriate amount of food for its age and developmental stage
- Ensure the breeding bitch is given appropriate food as per its needs in each stage of whelp.
Behaviour
The license holder must ensure:
- Implement and demonstrate a documented socialisation and habituation programme for the puppies
- Provide the dogs with toy or feeding enrichment (or both) unless a veterinarian advises otherwise
- Adult dogs are exercised twice daily away from their sleeping area.
- Any equipment or toys dogs are likely to be in contact with will not pose any risk of pain, suffering, disease or distress to the dog.
Housing
- Each adult dog must be provided with opportunities for social contact with other dogs where it is beneficial to their welfare
- Each adult dog must be given suitable and adequate opportunities to become habituated to handling by people.
- There must be procedures in place for dogs that display abnormal behaviours.
- The dogs must have access to an area within each sleeping area where the dogs can avoid seeing people or other dogs if they so choose.
Protection From Pain, Suffering, Injury and Disease
The License holder must ensure:
- All dogs are sold in good health
- Any dog with a condition that will affect its quality of life must not be moved, transferred or offered for sale.
- Each puppy is microchipped and registered to the license holder before it is sold
- A dog should not be bred if its genes, physical traits, or health condition could harm its well-being or that of its offspring.
- The health, safety and welfare of each dog is checked at the start and end of every day and at least four hours during the daytime.
The license holder must keep a record of details relating to each breeding dog:
- Its name
- Its Sex
- Microchip & database details
- Its date of birth
- Postal Address where it normally resides
- Its breed or type
- Its description
- The date or dates of matings, successful or not
- Details of its biological parents (mother and father)
- Details of any veterinary treatment received
- The date and cause of its death
Breeding bitches must be supervised during whelping and records must be kept of:
- Time and date of each puppy’s birth
- Each puppy’s sex, colour and weight
- Placentae passed
- The number of puppies in a litter
- Any other significant events
In Addition to the above, the license holder must keep records of the following in relation to breeding bitches:
- The number of matings
- Age at the time of each mating
- The number of litters
- The Date or Dates on which it gave birth
- The number of caesarean sections it has had.
Breeding bitches in the license holder’s care must not:
- Be mated under 12 months of age
- Give birth to more than one litter of puppies in a 12 month period.
- Give birth to more than 6 litters of puppies in total
- Be mated if she has had two litter deliveries by caesarean section.
Other Stipulations:
- Unless the license holder keeps the dog as a pet, the license holder must make arrangements for breeding dogs to be appropriately rehomed
- A preventative healthcare plan agreed upon with the veterinarian with whom the licence holder has registered and the veterinarian details should be readily available to those on the premises
- The licence holder must keep a record of any preventative or curative healthcare (or both) given to each dog.
- Where any other activity involving animals is undertaken on the premises on which the licensable activity of breeding dogs is carried on, it must be kept entirely separate from the area where that licensable activity is carried on.
