Introduce license requirement for pet sitters and dog walkers

102
signatures
openDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural Affairsby Liam BoltonOpened 13 July 2026

Background

Introduce stricter controls on who can provide pet care services such as licenses required to provide any pet care related services as a business. Many of us have worked hard for qualifications and are now being muscled out of our industry by children and retired people who offer services for free.

Additional details

In our experience, the pet care industry is being flooded by retired and young people (kids) offering free or substantially discounted services. We believe this is affectively pushing out those who have qualifications and the knowledge, forcing them to close business, while continuing to make walking dogs harder and less safe for members of the public and hard workers in the industry due to people who can't control dogs having responsibility over them.

Where it’s popular

Constituencies with the most signatures on this petition.

Source: UK Government & Parliament Petitions service. Petition ID: 773056.