Should Micro-Chipping Become a Legal Requirement For Dogs?

At the moment it is a legal requirement for your dog to have some sort of identification on whilst in public. A tag on the dogs collar is the most popular way of doing this, it is ideal for if someone finds your pet as they can get your details off the tag. But what happens if your dog slips their collar or if their collar breaks?

If a dog is found stray and there is no ID on them; rescue centres/kennels have to wait 7 days for someone to come forward to claim them. If you manage to track your dog down you usually have to pay the dog warden, in some places it can be about £90...or most kennel managers charge full boarding expenses. If you don't manage to track your dog down in those golden 7 days the rescue centre is then legally allowed to re-home or put down your dog, your loving pet!

A microchip is a small device about the size of a grain of rice, it is injected under the dogs skin and the data is picked up by hand help scanners. Vets, dog wardens and rescue centre have these hand held scanners so if your dog is picked up some where they can quickly be returned back to you.

Most microchipping companies also sell tags with their logo on it, this deters people from stealing your pooch as most people who steal dogs understand that a microchipped pet would be more difficult to re-home as vets always scan new patients.

I personally feel really strongly about pets being microchipped. Most vets do it for about £15, but think about all the heartache it would save you if your dog gets lost, not to mention the dog warden or kennel charges!

Think about all the neglected and abused animals that are abandoned in this country. At the moment there is no way of tracing the owner, so there are very few prosecutions. But what about if they were microchipped? This would hopefully reduce the numbers of animals being abandoned and for those un-lucky pets that are still mistreated at least there will be justice.

The other side to the debate says that the kind of people who would neglect and abuse animals are also the same people who are un-likely to abide by the regulation in the first place. But if this legislation is turned down on that basis; what about all the other laws these kind of people break? Should these just be taken out of British Law too? The other negative view on the matter is....how would this policy be put into place and then monitored? I would suggest that as a starting point that vets insist all patients are chipped, but could this lead to people avoiding seeking medical care. What about police officers having a hand held scanner for doing on the spot checks? But as scanners are around £100 each this could lead to be very expensive.

If microchipping were to become a legal requirement then vet practices will have more custom. Maybe they could come to some sort of arrangement by linking with an animal charity and donating a percentage to charities such as the RSPCA, Dogs Trust, PDSA or the countless rescue centres across the nation.

I am not suggesting that I could give the prime minister an exact plan of action, but I am sure he pays some one enough to come up with one themselves. Overall I think that the positives would outweigh the negatives. If you have ever lost or had a pet stolen yourself then I am sure you would agree, I hope that this legislation gets put into place for the sake of all the dogs in the UK.

So, for the cost of a takeaway, your pet could have ID for life!!!

My name is Abbey Johnson and I run More For Paws alongside my business partner Jennifer Weaver. We offer dog walking, pet sitting and home boarding services. Based in Cudworth, we cover Barnsley, Dearne and Rotherham and will soon be expanding to Sheffield, Doncaster, Wakefield and Leeds. http://www.moreforpaws.co.uk

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