Agenda item

Report of the Cabinet Member Development and Safety

The Cabinet Member Development and Safety introduced the report as circulated with the agenda. He explained that under the Council’s Constitution Cabinet could approve the adoption of animal licensing conditions to raise animal welfare standards for licenced animal premises including pet vending, animal boarding establishments and dog breeding.

He reported that an eight week consultation on five new sets of standard licence conditions was undertaken between 14 August and 9 October 2015. These new licence conditions were extracted from model conditions published by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health and Local Authority Co-ordinators of Regulatory Services. Requests for alterations from consultees and the reporting officer had been highlighted in the report with the recommendations for adoption. He explained that adoption of the proposed conditions would bring the authority up to date with the Animal Welfare Act 2006.

The Cabinet Member reported that within the consultation feedback a conflict in the appropriate wording of two sections of the Dog Home Boarding conditions (conditions 5.5.7 and 5.83) had arisen. Cabinet were asked to decide which wording to adopt. He explained that the two alternative wordings suggested for 5.5.7 were outlined at 2.19 and 2.20 of the report. Of these two alternatives he recommended to Cabinet that the following wording was adopted :

“Precautions must be taken to prevent the spread of fleas, ticks, intestinal parasites and other parasites in both boarded and resident dogs. Proof must be maintained of all routine and emergency treatment for parasites”.

The two alternative wordings suggested for condition 5.83 were outlined at 2.30 and 2.31 of the report. Of the two alternatives he recommended to Cabinet that the following wording was adopted :

“No current licenced home boarders have children under 7 in their household”.

In summing up the Cabinet Member said it was important that the Council maintained the highest standards of animal welfare within the borough and the adoption of these up to date conditions would contribute to ensuring that this happened. Once approved it was proposed that the newly adopted conditions were included in an overarching animal welfare policy with the objective of simplifying the council’s policies for the general public.

RESOLVED THAT

1.    the conditions set out in ‘Model conditions for Pet Vending Licencing 2013’ published by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, September 2013 (see Appendix 4 for original and Appendix 7 for proposed)be adopted as the Authority’s licensing conditions in respect of pet vendors and shops selling companion animals as amended by the requested proposed conditions.

2.    the conditions set out in ‘CIEH Model Licence Conditions and Guidance for Dog Breeding Establishments’ published by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, January 2014 (see Appendix 4 for original and Appendix 8 for proposed), be adopted as the Authority’s licensing conditions in respect of dog breeders who require a licenceas amended by the requested proposed conditions.

3.    the conditions set out in ‘CIEH Model Licence Conditions and Guidance for Cat Boarding Establishments 2013’ published by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, November 2013 (see Appendix 4 for original and Appendix 9 for proposed) be adopted as the Authority’s licensing conditions in respect of cat boarding establishments as amended by the requested proposed conditions.

4.    the conditions set out in ‘CIEH Model Licence Conditions and Guidance for Dog Boarding Establishments’ published by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, October 1995 (see Appendix 4 for original and Appendix 10 for proposed)be adopted as the Authority’s licensing conditions in respect of dog boarding establishment using external kennels as amended by the requested proposed conditions.

5.    the conditions set out in ‘LACORS Model Licence Conditions for Home Boarding (Dogs), Animal Boarding Establishments Act 1963’ published by LACORS in November 2005 along with the ‘LACORS model home boarding conditions - Update and clarification, 14^th October 2009’ (see Appendix 5 for original and Appendix 11 for proposed)be adopted as the Authority’s licensing conditions in respect of the home boarding of dogs as amended by the requested proposed conditions and Cabinet’s support for conditions 5.5.7 and 5.8.3.

6.    the conditions be applied from the 1^st January 2016.

7.    It be approved that officers may deviate from the detail of these conditions on a case by case basis, provided the proprietor can prove that the same or higher animal welfare standards are achieved by an alternative approach.