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When you need an animal gatherings licence

If you want to hold an animal gathering, the premises must have an Animal Gatherings Order (AGO) licence from Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA).

An animal gathering is when certain species of animals are brought together from different places:

• to be sold
• to be sent elsewhere (for example, for slaughter)
• for show or exhibition
• to be inspected for breed characteristics (for example, to assess pedigree status)

The animal species include:

• cattle (excluding bison and yak)
• sheep
• pigs
• deer
• goats

Gatherings of poultry and other captive birds are not licensed in the same way but must be registered. Read the bird gathering general licence.

You must have an animal gathering licence if your gathering involves poultry or captive birds and any of the animals listed.

When you do not need a licence

You do not need a licence to hold an animal gathering if:

• all the animals brought to the premises come from one holding
• animals are dispersed from one holding

Get an animal gatherings licence

Complete the application for a licence to hold an animal gathering form (AGO01) and a plan of the proposed site.

You can get help with the AGO01 form from APHA.

Send the completed forms to APHA:

• for England, send to One Health CSC, County Hall, Spetchley Road, Worcester, WR5 2NP or email to CSCOneHealthAGO@apha.gov.uk
• for Wales, send to the Caernarfon Field Service Office or email to APHA.CymruWales@apha.gov.uk

After you have submitted the form, APHA will arrange a visit by a veterinary inspector to discuss your application and inspect the premises.

Your licence will be posted to you if the veterinary inspector is satisfied that the licence conditions will be met.

Give notice

At least 14 days before you hold each animal gathering under your licence, you must tell APHA and your local council:

• the times when the licensed premises will be open to receive animals
• the purpose of the animal gathering

You do not need to do this if the dates were included in your application form.

Fees

Unless you are exempt, as a licensee you must pay licensing fees to APHA for premises used to hold an animal gathering.

APHA will assess the level of animal health risk and the amount of work needed to process your application. This determines your fee. APHA will carry out an inspection in most cases.

When you do not need to pay

You do not need to pay for your licence if the gathering is either:

• a show or exhibition open to the public for only one day and no animals are sold or auctioned

• only to inspect animals for specific breed characteristics

What you must pay fees for

You must pay fees for:

• licence application assessments (whether the application is approved or not)

• licence renewals (yearly)

• licence amendments (such as a change of licensee or change of use or premises) - an additional inspection may be needed

• additional inspections if a licence cannot be issued or reissued after the first inspection

• veterinary inspector travel time up to 90 minutes

Fees for markets or sales and collections centres

Fees for shows or exhibitions

Extra fees (for all types of gathering)

Note that extra inspection time beyond the first 75 minutes will be rounded up to the nearest 15 minutes. For example: extra inspection time of between 1 minute and 15 minutes will cost 24, extra inspection time of between 16 and 30 minutes will cost 48, and so on. Veterinary inspector travel time will also be rounded up to the nearest 15 minutes, up to a maximum of 90 minutes.

Animal gatherings licence conditions

You must make sure that you comply with the conditions in your licence. These conditions are listed on the application form and include the following:

• you take all reasonable steps to prevent the spread of disease during animal gatherings (biosecurity measures) see biosecurity advice for animal gatherings (PDF, 788 KB, 6 pages)
• you appoint a biosecurity officer to make sure licence conditions are upheld (this can be the licence holder)
• there is a fence around the licensed area to prevent animals escaping
• animals only enter or leave the animal area in a vehicle (they must only be loaded onto and off vehicles in the animal area)
• no animals arrive after a period of 48 hours from the start time the licensed premises advertised they will be open for receiving animals. You can ask APHA to extend this period in some circumstances
• you keep records to allow tracing of animals
• you comply with animal welfare rules and do not allow sick or injured animals to be presented for sale
• you have documented operational procedures i
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