New legislation has announced that the thousands of cat owners in the UK have just over a year to microchip their pet, else risk receiving a £500 fine. Hefty fines could also be dished out to the thousands of dog owners who have not microchipped their pets despite it already being a legal requirement to do so.
Experts from Quotezone.co.uk have urged pet owners to microchip their dogs and register them on a national database in order to make it easier to track down lost or stolen pups. The microchipping law was put in place on 6 April 2016 for dogs and by June 2024, is mandatory for cats as well.
Owners are legally required to make sure their dog is fitted with a microchip by the time they’re 8 weeks old, unless they have health conditions that prevent them from the procedure.
Owners are also responsible for updating their contact details and the dog’s microchip information on the database, as failing to do so could land them another £500 fine. As well as being microchipped, dogs are still legally required to wear a collar with the owner’s contact details when out in public.
Not only does microchipping help identify and return dogs to their owners, it also helps to decrease the growing number of strays on the streets and alleviates the strain that many animal shelters are under.
Charities and local authorities can save millions of pounds in annual savings by not having to feed and home dogs who have gone missing, when they can instead just easily scan the chip and find the owner. Additionally, microchipping is crucial since without it pet insurance is not an option, as insurance providers can invalidate the policy if the pup goes missing without a microchip.
Quotezone.co.uk Founder and CEO Greg Wilson said: “Microchipping increases the chance of missing pets being reunited with their owners, providing benefits for animal welfare as well as lowering costs for animal shelters.”
Inserting a microchip only takes a moment and you can also find centres that do it for free all over the nation, so there’s really no excuse for why you shouldn’t offer your four-legged friend all the protection you can.
The number of stray cats is a rising issue, as recent research reveals that 80% of cats coming into Cats Protection’s centres are not microchipped, making it very difficult to reunite them with their owners. Under the new law, the fines for cat owners who are caught not having microchipped their kittens will be the same as for dogs, however cats need to be chipped by the time they’re 20 weeks old.
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