Practical Fishkeeping Magazine has announced its latest Readers Poll, revealing the favourite shops for scratching their subscribers’ ichthyophile itch. We love a good shop too and it’s heartening to see so many winners are also members of OATA.
Anything that shines a light on shops that sell pet fish is a good thing in our book because we’re increasingly concerned at the negative press around pets in pet shops. Ignited by the Lucy’s Law campaign to ban the sale of puppies and kittens by third parties (ie pet shops), it sometimes feels like pet shops are seen as a ‘bad’ place to get a new pet.
This is especially worrying when our research reveals that more than three-quarters of UK pet shops licenced to sell animals sell pet fish. More recent number-crunching for our 2024 Trade Statistics Report has sadly uncovered that a fifth of livestock-selling aquatic retailers have ceased selling animals over the past nine years.
That should worry us all because good aquatic stores are really important places to spark a lifelong love of fishkeeping. To be able to enjoy the mesmerising beauty of live fish swimming in front of you is one of the wonders of the UK High Street (or industrial park). And shops are where the majority of money is spent by customers. We estimate around £510 million was spent on the fishkeeping hobby in UK shops alone in 2024, out of a total £662 million when online sales are rung up too. So shops remain the driving force for sales for the fishkeeping hobby.
Pet shops are open to public scrutiny every day by customers who walk through the door, they are inspected and licensed by local authorities, they are required to invest in species-specific staff training (like OATA’s City & Guilds accredited training programmes) and must hand out care information (like OATA’s wide range of free caresheets) when they sell animals. Not something you see with online sales.
Online shopping is inevitably on the rise and one of our concerns is around questionable posting practices, in particular fish being sent illegally through Royal Mail. Royal Mail is not authorised by the Animal and Plant Health Agency to carry live animals. Any courier transporting live animals must comply with requirements under the Welfare in Animals Transport Orders which cover Great Britain. Good businesses know this but private and unlicensed sellers often fail to meet this important welfare and legal standard.
That’s why OATA firmly believes good pet shops are actually great places to buy some pets – like pet fish – because they:
- Educate through the enthusiasm & knowledge of the staff who care about the animals they sell & want them to thrive in their new environment.
- Inspire and captivate the next generation of fishkeepers by offering the chance to watch beautiful fish swimming around.
- Prevent impulse buying and are great places to start conversations about the best way to keep fish.
Because if pet shops are put off from selling live animals such as fish where will these sales go? Is buying an animal from online pet-selling directories or through social media really the way we want to go, particularly when research by the Pet Advertising Advisory Group reveals one in five pet selling ads on these sites are potential scams?
Here’s how OATA supports good aquatic pet shops:
- We set standards – OATA member businesses sign up to our Code of Conduct.
- We provide industry training – OATA offers two levels of specialist City & Guilds-accredited training programmes to upskill shop staff.
- We have the widest range of free species-specific care information in the pet industry – OATA has more than 60+ caresheets freely available on our website for shops to use and we support The Pet Charity’s Pet Know How initiative which aims to improve pre-purchase research among prospective pet owners.
- We provide industry best practice guidance – OATA provides a whole range of advice and guidance for the industry, from water quality criteria for businesses to our biosecurity self-assessment tool, which drive up standards in businesses, including shops.
- We provide help to shops to meet licence standards – OATA member businesses benefit from our advice and templates to help them meet licensing requirements, as well as membership of our Primary Authority scheme, helping them towards achieving high star scores in licensing inspections.
