Barking Up The Wrong Tree

Should Dogs Be Microchipped By Law?

If your dog is microchipped, then you have a better chance of finding your pet if he is lost.  The microchip is a small electronic chip, the size of a grain of rice, that is injected under the skin of the dog between his shoulderblades.  When the animal is scanned, the chip reveals a unique number.  That number is stored on a national database and the owner’s name and address is stored against that number.  Whenever you move house or change your details, you can update the details online, by telephone or through the post.

In Norwich, schoolchildren have started a campaign to make microchipping compulsory for dogs.  The main reason for this is the high volume of stray dogs, which are no longer the responsibility of the police in England and Wales, but now fall under the remit of the local council.

In 2007, over 105,000 stray dogs were collected and around 8,000 were unfortunately put to sleep because their owners could not be found.  If they had been microchipped, most of these would have been returned home safely at a lower cost to the council too.

Even if your dog is microchipped, you should check that your details are up to date.  When you move house, it’s probably one of the things that you are more likely to forget to change.