THINKING of keeping a lion, a tiger, or a bear in Oxford?

'Exotic' licences for keeping these dangerous wild animals, as well as licences for acupuncturists, tattooists and pavement cafes have all been discussed at a council meeting.

Oxford City Council's general purpose licensing committee discussed licenses for 'miscellaneous' goods and services at its meeting on Monday.

These include licences for selling animals, hiring horses, and keeping dangerous wild animals, as well as for tattoos, acupuncture and electrolysis.

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Council staff member David Stevens, said the licences should be known as the 'exotic licensing functions' of the council because they covered such a wide array of unique issues.

The city council reviews its licensing charges each year in the run up to the budget.

The committee agreed that most of the miscellaneous charges should be increased in line with inflation, but the full council will have a final say on whether this goes ahead.

The increases would mean that registering a dangerous wild animal for example, would increase to £455 in 2020/21 from £440 in 2019/20.

Meanwhile, registering as a tattooist would rise from £122 to £126; and register a shop as a tattoo parlour would rise from £245 to £253.

Keeping dangerous wild animals in the UK comes with a host of warnings.

The RSPCA recommends obeying the law set out in the Animal Welfare Act to meet any special needs of exotic animals.