Buying a cat or dog
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Before you buy a pet cat or dog, make checks to avoid the illegal trade in pet animals, and know how to report concerns.
Adapted edition
- Document type
- Reference Guide
- Format
- DOCX
- Pages
- 4
- Language
- English
- Version
- 1.0
- Updated
- 2026-09-17
- Category
- Safety & operations
- Licence
- Open Government Licence v3.0
Description
Before you buy a pet cat or dog, make checks to avoid the illegal trade in pet animals, and know how to report concerns. Consult the original guidance for current legal and operational details.
Contents
- Buying a cat or dog: what to consider
- Buying a kitten or a puppy
- Adopting: what to consider when rescuing or rehoming
- Rehoming an animal from overseas
- Trade in illegally imported cats and dogs
- Reporting concerns
Source and licence
Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
AttributionDepartment for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, ‘Buying a cat or dog’ (updated 4 December 2025), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
ChangesNeutral text-only adaptation from the official GOV.UK Content API body: headings, paragraphs, ordered and unordered list items and clickable source-link destinations in an appendix preserved. Images, logos, page design, accessible-format request widgets and linked attachments excluded; normalised whitespace, invisible format marks and typography.
Version history
- v1.017/09/2026