Trade licence fee for pet shops in the city will be Rs. 5,000. The Corporation Council, in its next meeting on Friday, will make a decision on including pet shops in the trade licence net and take steps to regularise such shops. So far, the shops were not covered under trade licence net.
The pet shops include those selling exotic breeds of dogs, cats, birds and fish. The application for trade licence will be scrutinised by Corporation officials. A copy of the application for trade licence by pet shops should also be sent to the Animal Welfare Board of India. The traders will have to renew the trade licence every two years by remitting a fee of Rs.1,000.
After notification by the government, all shops selling food products and other material for pets would also have to remit trade licence fee. Such a shop with an area less than 1,000 sq. ft. will remit a fee of Rs.2,000. The shops with area greater that 1,000 sq ft will remit a trade licence fee of Rs.5,000.
The inclusion of pet shops in the list of trades will reinforce existing mechanisms of ensuring minimum standards of sanitation, drainage, ventilation, heating, cooling, humidity, special and enclosure requirements, nutrition, medical treatment and methods of operations.
The unregulated breeding of pets has contributed to the rise in stray dog menace. Many of the breeders are found to abandon pets including dogs after finding them commercially unviable. Over five hundred pet shops have emerged as a source of civic problems.
