The Hindu 26.04.2013
Pet shops to shell out Rs. 5,000 for trade licence
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.