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In the The Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018 the requirements for dog breeding to be licensable are:

SCHEDULE1, PART 5

Breeding dogs

  1. Either or both of the following—

(a)breeding three or more litters of puppies in any 12-month period;

(b)breeding dogs and advertising a business of selling dogs.

Concerning 8 (b), is there a difference between advertising a product and advertising a business? From a pure english reading of this, one could say that an advert saying "Come buy a puppy from a specific litter ready at date X from location Y" is advertising a product but "Come buy a puppy from location Y, we have the best puppies" is advertising a business, but this seems a pretty fine line on which to base the licensability of activities upon.

How should this wording be interpreted in respect of how one could advertise the availability of puppies without requiring one to get a licence?

user 55905
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User65535
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2 Answers2

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Advertising by a business of their product is "advertising a business."

For HMCR, there is a bright line - if your activities earn more than £1,000 a year, you're running a business for tax purposes. It's also the point at which you are required to register. The court is likely to consider that to be persuasive but not determinative and will assess all aspects of the dog-breeding activity to determine if it is a business or a hobby.

Note that selling goods on a one-off or irregular basis (such as selling the puppies your pet dog had after getting busy) is neither a hobby or a business. Unless and until you do it regularly enough.

Dale M
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You need to look at SCHEDULE 1, PART 1 which basically says it is business if you make a profit.

PART 1

Business test

  1. The circumstances which a local authority must take into account in determining whether an activity is being carried on in the course of a business for the purposes of this Schedule include, for example, whether the operator—

(a)makes any sale by, or otherwise carries on, the activity with a view to making a profit, or

(b)earns any commission or fee from the activity.

user 55905
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