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Babergh District Council animal licensing register
Babergh District Council licenses 34 animal businesses in the categories we cover. 26 hold a 4- or 5-star rating — 76% of the register.
23 of those entries have no published address, so they appear on this page but not on any town page. That is the council's redaction rather than a gap in our data: home boarding and breeding are carried out from residential addresses, and councils withhold them for that reason. The other 11 are spread across 10 towns.
We last verified this register 3 days ago, so the entries below are current to within a couple of months.
By activity, the most common licence here is dog home boarding (23 businesses), followed by dog boarding (6) and cat boarding (6). 4 of the licensable activities are represented across the authority.
16 licences come up for renewal within twelve months, and 1 has an expiry date already in the past. Longer licence terms are awarded to higher-rated operators, so a register weighted towards distant expiry dates is usually a well-rated one.
Copdock and Washbrook has the most at 2 of the 11 located businesses (18%), and 9 of the 10 towns have exactly one.
The council's own register is the authoritative source and we link to it below. Where our copy and theirs disagree, theirs is correct — councils sometimes amend entries without changing the published date.
By town
- Acton — 1 licensed business
- Boxford — 1 licensed business
- Capel St. Mary — 1 licensed business
- Copdock and Washbrook — 2 licensed businesses
- Glemsford — 1 licensed business
- Hadleigh — 1 licensed business
- Milden — 1 licensed business
- Sproughton — 1 licensed business
- Wattisham — 1 licensed business
- Wherstead — 1 licensed business
Full register
| Business | Town | Council rating | Licence | Expires | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barking Mad | — | ★★★★★ | LN/000000736 | 23 April 2028 | 2 August 2026 |
| Bed and Barkfest | — | ★★★★★ | LN/000000893 | 31 May 2027 | 2 August 2026 |
| Clay Hill Cattery | Wattisham | ★★★★★ | LN/000000938 | 31 March 2028 | 2 August 2026 |
| Happy Hounds | — | ★★★★★ | LN/000001125 | 10 March 2029 | 2 August 2026 |
| Holly House Boarding | — | ★★★★★ | LN/000000907 | 19 July 2026 | 2 August 2026 |
| JAWs, Paws & Claws Pet Care Services | — | ★★★★★ | LN/000000976 | 26 June 2027 | 2 August 2026 |
| Molly's Cottage | — | ★★★★★ | LN/000000729 | 31 March 2028 | 2 August 2026 |
| Ovens Green Kennels & Cattery | Acton | ★★★★★ | LN/000000881 | 31 March 2027 | 2 August 2026 |
| Paws N Snores | — | ★★★★★ | LN/000000952 | 20 February 2027 | 2 August 2026 |
| Pet Stay Suffolk | — | ★★★★★ | LN/000001118 | 1 February 2029 | 2 August 2026 |
| Sarah's Pawsome Dog Retreat | — | ★★★★★ | LN/000000947 | 3 February 2027 | 2 August 2026 |
| Simbos Gun Dogs & Grooming | Boxford | ★★★★★ | LN/000000856 | 31 March 2029 | 2 August 2026 |
| St Mary's Canine Creche | Capel St. Mary | ★★★★★ | LN/000000794 | 27 January 2029 | 2 August 2026 |
| Suffolk Dog Town Ltd | Sproughton | ★★★★★ | LN/000001129 | 31 March 2027 | 2 August 2026 |
| Tails of Bentley | — | ★★★★★ | LN/000001128 | 17 March 2029 | 2 August 2026 |
| The Bark Inn | — | ★★★★★ | LN/000001036 | 13 March 2028 | 2 August 2026 |
| The Grey Hotel | — | ★★★★★ | LN/000001074 | 30 September 2028 | 2 August 2026 |
| Tz Dog Retreat | — | ★★★★★ | LN/000000730 | 31 March 2029 | 2 August 2026 |
| Walnut Tree Boarding | — | ★★★★★ | LN/000001115 | 19 December 2028 | 2 August 2026 |
| Farmy Paws | — | ★★★★☆ | LN/000001308 | 17 March 2028 | 2 August 2026 |
| Loving Laps | — | ★★★★☆ | LN/000001187 | 10 September 2026 | 2 August 2026 |
| Molly's Dachshund Club | — | ★★★★☆ | LN/000001320 | 12 May 2028 | 2 August 2026 |
| Padded Paws Pet Services | — | ★★★★☆ | LN/000001212 | 10 February 2027 | 2 August 2026 |
| Rio's Retreat Suffolk | — | ★★★★☆ | LN/000001204 | 18 November 2026 | 2 August 2026 |
| Stephanie Bloomfield | — | ★★★★☆ | LN/000001222 | 15 April 2027 | 2 August 2026 |
| The Paws Club | — | ★★★★☆ | LN/000001255 | 12 August 2027 | 2 August 2026 |
| Acorn Cattery | Copdock and Washbrook | ★★★☆☆ | LN/000000854 | 31 March 2027 | 2 August 2026 |
| April Cottage Cattery | Milden | ★★★☆☆ | LN/000000929 | 31 March 2027 | 2 August 2026 |
| Bourne Hill Boarding Kennels & Cattery | Wherstead | ★★★☆☆ | LN/000000803 | 31 March 2027 | 2 August 2026 |
| Brookfield Place Kennels | Glemsford | ★★★☆☆ | LN/000000713 | 31 March 2028 | 2 August 2026 |
| Copdock Kennels & Cattery | Copdock and Washbrook | ★★★☆☆ | LN/000000723 | 31 March 2028 | 2 August 2026 |
| Harvest Kennels | Hadleigh | ★★★☆☆ | LN/000000942 | 20 January 2027 | 2 August 2026 |
| Riley's Retreat | — | ★★★☆☆ | LN/000001170 | 22 July 2027 | 2 August 2026 |
| Field & Hound Ltd | — | ★★☆☆☆ | LN/000001300 | 18 February 2027 | 2 August 2026 |
Star ratings are issued by the licensing authority and combine a risk score with a compliance assessment — they are not customer reviews and we never merge them with one. A new business cannot normally receive 5 stars regardless of quality, and a 2- or 3-star business is still fully compliant with the law. Ratings are reproduced exactly as published by the issuing council.
Rating distribution across Babergh District Council
| Rating | Businesses | Share |
|---|---|---|
| ★★★★★ | 19 | 56% |
| ★★★★☆ | 7 | 21% |
| ★★★☆☆ | 7 | 21% |
| ★★☆☆☆ | 1 | 3% |
These are businesses licensed to board animals for payment under the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018. They are not house sitters. A sitter who stays in your home and cares for your pet there does not need this licence — the licensing regime applies to boarding at the operator's premises, home boarding, day care, breeding, and sale of pets.
Where these figures come from
- Last updated
- 2 August 2026
- Basis
- Listed asking rates, not transacted prices
- Local authority animal activity licence registers — English local authorities. Factual fields extracted from each council's published public register: trading name, licence number, licensable activity, star rating and expiry date. Where a council redacts an address — as they routinely do for home boarders operating from a residential address — the record is kept without a location and never geolocated by inference. Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0. Refreshed 1 August 2026.
- Postcode geography — Office for National Statistics / Ordnance Survey, via postcodes.io. Postcodes already published in council registers are resolved to a parish or ward and coordinates. Only postcodes the council itself published are looked up. Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0. Refreshed 1 August 2026.
- Source register: https://www.babergh.gov.uk/en/animal-licence-register
- Re-use terms asserted by the council: Open Government Licence v3.0