Under the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018 (“the 2018 Regulations”), anyone selling animals as pets in the course of a business, including kittens and cats, needs to hold a valid license issued by their local authority. Information provided by local authorities indicates that 2169 licenses to sell animals as pets were in force in England on 1 April 2023. The data can be found here: <a href="https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fckan.publishing.service.gov.uk%2Fdataset%2Flocal-authority-licensing-of-activities-involving-animals-returns&data=05%7C02%7Cpqteam%40defra.gov.uk%7C76cb6c154b7d48a41e3d08dc320b6ecc%7C770a245002274c6290c74e38537f1102%7C0%7C0%7C638440271902722886%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=kdMkmaQOFCy8uBO7P0CwKNq8%2BXZ9cuJ%2BPv%2BgOjW%2BChI%3D&reserved=0" target="_blank">Local Authority Licensing of Activities involving Animals returns - Dataset - data.gov.uk (publishing.service.gov.uk).