What support will be made available to animal rescue and rehoming organisations in Wales to ensure that they can continue to rehome animals rescued from situations of neglect, if they are not exempt under the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (Wales) Regulations 2021?
Statutory Guidance will be produced providing Local Authorities with information to support the “business test” which has to be taken into account which will include limited discretion for them to decide whether a licence is required or not.
It will be possible for a Local Authority to apply their discretion in consideration of whether a legitimate “not for profit” rescue/rehoming centre requires a licence. This also has the added benefit of requiring any rescue/rehoming centre to open themselves up to Local Authority scrutiny in order to enable full consideration of whether a licence is required or not and also acts as a deterrent for third party sellers setting themselves up as a pseudo rescue/rehoming centre.