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  4. Keeping and moving animals

Keeping and moving animals

Trading Standards’ Animal Health Inspectors enforce farm animal health legislation. Their duties include:

  • inspecting farms, markets and vehicles
  • issuing licences for movement of livestock.

Keeping livestock

‘Livestock’ refers to sheep, goats, cattle, pigs, deer, horses and poultry.

All keepers of livestock, whether they have a whole herd or just one animal (for poultry, 50 or more birds), must be registered with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

You must also conform to legislation on animal identification and tracing. For full details on tagging and registering livestock see the GOV.UK website:

For more information about the law regarding the keeping of animals, including journey times and the types of transportation required, see Animals and agriculture.

Horse passports

All horses, ponies and donkeys must have animal passports. For information about the regulations and how to apply, see getting and using a horse passport.

Pet passports

New rules apply from 1st January 2021 when travelling with your pet between Great Britain (GB) and abroad. To allow pets to enter GB without having to stay in quarantine, strict criteria must be met. See bringing your pet to Great Britain and taking your pet abroad.

Animal feed

If your business transports animal feed, you must be registered with Trading Standards and comply with animal feed regulations.

To find out how to register and download forms, see our page animal feed.

Disposal of livestock remains

To avoid contamination, livestock remains must be disposed of by approved means. For details, see disposal of animal by-products and fallen stock.

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