Brighton cracks down on impulse pet purchasing

Brighton and Hove City Council has taken a national lead on responsible pet-selling. The Animal Protection Agency praised it for adopting measures to reduce ‘impulse’ pet purchasing and encourage ‘informed decision-making’ when animals are bought from pet shops.

The authority is the first in the country to adopt a scheme from the Brighton-based Animal Protection Agency that will help pet buyers understand the responsibility they are taking on when they swap cash for anything from dogs and cats to exotic spiders, snakes and lizards.

The APA is promoting a system of categorising pets as ‘easy’, ‘moderate’ ‘difficult’ or ‘extreme’ to keep – known as EMODE after the different categories.

From January 1, the council will ask pet shops to hand out leaflets to anyone thinking of buying a pet.

Speaking about Brighton and Hove’s decision to adopt the EMODE scheme, Elaine Toland, director of the Animal Protection Agency, said: “As a Brighton-based organisation that helped to develop EMODE, we are particularly proud that the initiative has been adopted on our doorstep and we are looking forward to pet shops taking this on.

“Pet shops that hand out the EMODE leaflet signal commitment to responsible pet-selling and should inspire greater confidence in prospective purchasers.

“We are delighted that EMODE is rapidly gaining support and has also received the ‘thumbs up’ from UK central government.”

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