Maybe England will follow suit...

Taken from this weeks Our Dogs.

KC and SKC achieve lobbying success as business test removed from Scottish breeding regulations

Following substantial lobbying, the Kennel Club earlier this week welcomed new dog breeding regulations in Scotland and commended officials in Holyrood for breaking away from the unfair and complex English approach to the licensing of breeders.
The regulations, which are due to come into play from September, do still outline that breeders in Scotland will require a licence if they breed three or more litters a year – but theywill remove the initially proposed and controversial ‘business test’ and will result in comparatively straightforward legislation which should more effectively crack-down on poor breeding practices.

Following the 2018 update to dog breeding regulations in England, which it says it believes unfairly and disproportionately target responsible low volume breeders, as well as being difficult to enforce and understand, the Kennel Club has lobbied policymakers at every stage of the legislative process in Scotland to ensure that any regulations introduced there are more effective, fair and straightforward than their English counterparts.
In England, regulations introduced a licence requirement in 2018 for those breeding three or more litters of puppies in a 12-month period and for those breeding dogs and advertising a business of selling dogs – otherwise referred to as the ‘business test’. The KC says that although the legislation was intended to target high volume breeders, 40% of all licences issued following the introduction of the regulations in England were given to breeders of just one or two litters. This has resulted in local authorities not having enough resources to target higher volume commercial breeders, as well as reducing domestic dog breeding output – providing opportunities for puppy importers and puppy farmers to fill the gap and raising valid concerns regarding animal welfare and health. (See our opinion column on page eight ofthis week’s issue.)

Business test out

With this in mind, and following evidence provided by the Kennel Club about the English system’s failures during consultation, officials in Scotland have omitted the business test from the breeding regulations there. The Kennel Club and the Scottish Kennel Club were apparently the only organisations lobbying for this change and strongly voicing the concerns of the dog breeding community, ensuring that Holyrood has made this necessary U-turn in the final and approved regulations.

Dr Ed Hayes, Head of Public Affairs at the Kennel Club said: “We are incredibly pleased that the Scottish Government recognised and acted on our concerns about the business test, and commend them for heeding our warnings to not repeat the mistakes made in the parallel English regulations, which we know haven’t been effective in tackling bad breeding practices.
“Alongside our counterparts at the Scottish Kennel Club, we have worked tirelessly on behalf of breeders to remove the problematic areas of concern from the legislation. The business test was included in the first drafts of these regulations, but our behind-the-scenes efforts and close communication with the Scottish Government has paid off and we have successfully ensured that the approved regulations are fair and easy to interpret, meaning that those responsible, high welfare breeders in Scotland will not have the same problems as experienced in England.
“The simple licensing threshold is also much easier for enforcement bodies to interpret compared to the unnecessarily complex and unfair English laws. We hope this means they will be more effective in ensuring high volume breeders are not sacrificing welfare standards in search of profits, preventing any damaging and unintended consequences which could benefit puppy importers and puppy farmers, and enabling low volume breeders to continue to breed responsibly and meet market demand with happy and healthy puppies.
“With the ongoing unprecedented demand for puppies during the pandemic, we wholeheartedly welcome this positive step forward for dog welfare at such a crucial moment, and are delighted that our lobbying and engagement with Scottish officials, alongside the Scottish Kennel Club, has been successful.

Collaboration

“We look forward to further collaboration with the Scottish Government on the legislation outlined, and will continue engaging with them to follow its progress and understand how it will work in practice and be enforced.”
Parliamentary Liaison Officer for the Scottish Kennel Club, Richard Morrison, added: “After working hard alongside Scottish Government and the Kennel Club, we too welcome these new breeding regulations. We believe that the more simple approach to licensing will be better for dogs and puppies across the nation, encouraging high welfare, responsible and caring breeding, whilst being more effective in stamping out those who carelessly churn out puppies simply for profit.”
OUR DOGS COMMENTS The announcement this week that the KC and the SKC have helped to persuade the Scottish Government not to apply what is called ‘the business test’ when establishing which breeders require to be licensed, is a major step forward.
Hopefully it will lead to the English regulations eventually being improved and changed. At the moment many English local licensing authorities are insisting on a very strict interpretation of the regulation that says that even if you just breed one litter a year, you have to be licensed if you are ‘in the business of selling dogs’.
This business test is not new and had been in place since 1999 but had never been applied so strictly until the new Defra regulations came into force in 2018. It has resulted in many small hobby breeders being swept into the licensing net.
Apart from the fact that they are not written with small hobby breeders in mind, the regulations have meant that many local authorities have become bogged down in policing small breeders while the larger volume breeders are given less attention as a result. The fact that the KC and the SKC have managed to persuade Scottish officials to steer away from such a nonsensical situation, is to be welcomed enthusiastically. Those who have been lobbying for this approach are to be congratulated.
Let us hope that Defra too will soon be persuaded to change its guidance to English local authorities. This would enable them to concentrate far more effectively on where the breeder licensing laws were meant to bite – namely on those puppy farmers who pay scant attention to the welfare of their breeding bitches and the puppies they produce for sale.

Sounds like its a step in the right direction. Hopefully the English laws will be looked st more closely and see if those can be changed to be more equable and to take account of those only breeding occasionally

It makes more sense to me.

Personally I think the breeding regulations need a complete overhaul rather than just issuing new guidelines on it.

I know many people won't agree but I think they should have a tiered licencing system for dog breeders. The more litters you breed the more restrictions and requirements you should have to fill.

Hobby breeders (1-2 litters a year) just using an online system, proof of basic health testing, reporting the litters born and who they were sold too. And microchip numbers. And the licencing authority having a right to inspect if there's a complaint of poor conditions or sick puppies sold.

3 to 4 litters a year in the home but without using any kenneled dogs. Everything above plus yearly inspections. And inspections with notice

5 or more or breeding dogs kept in kennels, everything above plus twice yearly inspections,  unannounced inspections, health and tempermant testing of all breeding dogs (say brozen canine dog citizen certificate)

Accidental litters should have to be notified and the bitch spayed as soon as it's safe to do so and the owner fined to prevent it being a profitable loophole.

Online adds without a licence numbers or an accident litter number to be banned to make it harder to sell illegally bred/imported litters

And import for resale should just be banned. If an imported dog needs to be rehomed it should have to be done through a charity here. There's a few that work with pets kept at home until a home is found. Importing own pets or breeding stock to improve genetic diversity only

I know that many of you won't agree and that's fine.

That sounds pretty good to me! I’d get on board with that. Assuming cost would start low for hobby breeders and increase as you go up the levels. Seems pretty sensible!

That sounds a pretty good idea as a .it allows for those hobby breeders to continue in the way they do but moves up the list of requirements and checks the more litters being bred.as masajack says as long as the costings are at sensible amounts not as they often are atm .also it should be the whole of country and not variable by council interpretation as it is now

> also it should be the whole of country and not variable by council interpretation as it is now

Absolutely! Exact rules with no interpretation allowed!

Not bad. The health testing as a requirement I do think is imperative. Might kerb the many crossbreeds because they have to double up on the health tests for each breed once past the F1 status.

Me too, as long as the 1 - 2 litter level didnt affect my residential domestic status, and dogs companion status.

So that no prescriptive rules re accomodation and management.

If I let my bitch whelp on my bed or sofa, that's my affair.

If she likes her companions close during labour etc.

I think there has to be a distinction between facilities and management for a  breeder full time, and the 1 - 2 litter breeder who in effect is a breeder for only 8 - 16 weeks out of 52, for whom more adhoc temporary arrangements can apply. ,

> I know that many of you won't agree and that's fine.

Just thought though what about other animal breeders, many who breed because of their hobby, but some supply the lucrative pet market?

I still think, leave the 1 - 2 litters, and low level of cagedvspecies hobbyists be, and licence and inspect properly and regularly the real 'commercial producers'.