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The New Microchipping Legal Requirement for Dogs

A few weeks ago Petplan sent me an email asking if I would be happy to share a blog post about the new law that says from the 6th April 2016 it will become a legal requirement for all dogs in England, Wales and Scotland to be microchipped. This was the first I'd heard of this new law and though I don't own a dog myself, I think it's a brilliant step forward when it comes to responsible pet keepership. 

I used to work for the police in a busy police station and I would hear a lot about lost dogs. We even had some dogs that had been found brought in to us, though we could never take them in and we would have to advise if after a check on our system hadn't revealed any possible matches from our lost reports, that the found dogs were taken to either a vets or to an animal shelter to be checked for a microchip. 


Because that's the thing with lost pets - they're just so much more likely to end up being reunited with their keepers if they have a microchip. And pets can get lost, it happens a lot, I saw that working for the police, they can wander off or get frightened. So I think it's a brilliant idea to introduce a new law that says that all dogs in the UK must be microchipped (a requirement that has already been in force in Northern Ireland since 2012).

All dogs no matter their age will have to be microchipped and keepers have until the 6th April 2016 to do so. The only exemptions will be if a vet certifies that that a dog cannot be microchipped due to a health reason. In terms of penalties for failure to comply with the new law, there will be a fine that keepers will be liable to pay if they fail to have their dog microchipped. 

What do you think about the new microchipping law for dogs?


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2 comments

  1. This is a great idea and I'm surprised it isn't a legal requirement already. A great step in the right direction! x

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  2. I have a cat and she's microchipped, my previous cat who passed away at 17 last year had 2 chips: she moved from Canada to Hong Kong and chip requirements were different (and it's mandatory here) so I ended up with a dual-core cat :)

    This is actually quite reassuring to know that they can be found regardless of where they might go

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