Today I saw an advert for microchipping in a local farm supplies shop that said all the usual, cheaper then vets, get your dog back if lost blah, blah, blah.

At the bottom it then went on to say that microchipping will soon become a legal requirement of owning a dog, is this true? I never heard anything about that, and if its not true surely they can't say that.

It read like a good way of scaring people in to getting it done to me.

Robert

Mmm. I've not heard anything about it becoming a legal requirement, but then I don't always know what day it is half the time either :D :D
However wasn't the Dog License (for those of us old enough to remember it) supposed to be a legal requirement, and a lot of people just didn't bother 

liberty

I think this refers to the Compulsory Dog Registration that has been banded about for a few years now!

Jesse

I had my cat microchipped and was thinking for my dog.  A friend that works for the police said he didn't think it was half worth it as many lost/injured/killed animals don't get taken to a vet/police anyway.  It's sad but probably true.  A tag with a phone number is most likely just as good although if it was a law I wouldn't have a problem getting my dog chipped.  If he had to have some other surgical procedure I would just ask the vet to do it at the same time (that's what I did with my cat).

CG

I have all 3 of my dogs chipped... I
They also have a tag saying they are chipped so "scan me"
plus 2 name (phone number etc) tags each in case one comes off...

I think it should become law (even issuing local police stations etc with scanners)

Donna and charliex

The police will have nothing to do with stray dogs - you have to contact the Council's Dog Warden.

Your right JG, but our local police station (plus many in bham) will take strays untill the warden picks them up :)
Charlie, went missing about 2 years ago :( He was at a police station 5 miles away... they transferred him from one to the other... (they loved him, i might add :) )

Hence, the amount of tags they now wear...

Donna and charliex

You're lucky then - the police stations in this area (if you can find one that's open :rolleyes: ) won't accept them.

Funny you should say that JG, theres a police station in a very rough area of Birmingham...
went we went past the other day it was shut!
What is this world coming to?
Madness

Donna and charliex

The police stations around here only work 'office hours' ...

A friend found a young black lab bitch in her front garden yesterday. She took it in and rang me for some help (me ??? :) ). I didn't recognise the dog, so she rang the dog warden - he had gone home at 4pm and wouldn't be back until Monday :( She rang the police station who were very helpful, took all the details and said that she could take it there if she wanted. Firstly, she ran the dog down to our vets to check if it was microchippped - which it wasn't :( (We found out later that one of my neighbours had found the same dog a month or so ago and had to take it to the police as well !!) Before she could take it to the police station the owners rang (they had got the number from the police) and came to collect it. They work all day and the dog had got out before work, so they had done nothing. ALSO, it (she) was having her first season :( :( - so is probably pregnant now. The owners didn't seem too bothered :(

Daisy

It is ther law that a dog should have a properly tagged collar when out and about.  Tags cost up to about £5, yet so many people do not have them on their dogs, so how would they get everyone to chip (dearer and involve more time and trouble than getting a tag engraved), as after all who would check theat the law was adherd to.  ?would there be Scanner police out there doing random checks.  As it is no0one gets stopped for their dog not wearing it's tag?

Pets at home shops have a clever machine where you buy a token for about £5   you put this in the machien choose the tag you want and the text 5 mins later you have the tag.  Many people i know dont have tags on there dog but i do.

As for writing "scan me"  i wouldnt advise this, in the event of dog napping its easy to remove a tag,  if your dog was then sold on and someone took it to the vet if they scanned the dog they would find it belongs to yourself.   if you alrady tell that the dog is microchipped then chances are the thieves woudl dispose of the dog in a quick fashion  just the same as you wouldnt put a sticker on your car saying "tracker installed"  it would result in your car being dismatled or burnt out rather just wait for it to turn up again.

Hi all,
If chipping becomes law, doesn't that take some form of owner choice away?  I have heard so many scare stories about chipping (i.e. that it can 'move' around the dogs body, thus miss being scanned or perhaps causing physiological damage) that I am skeptical.  It is probably a lot of old wives' tale, but when the dog-tag or tattooing are alternatives, isn't it slightly ammoral to force owners to chip?

Incidently, are there any down-falls to tattooing (besides the body mutiliation theory!)?  My dogs are only trackable via a tag, which is not terribly reassurring, so I was wondering about tattoes - maybe one to match my own...jk

MW

Both 'systems' have their downside. Chips can move but it is a lot less likely these days and tattoos can fade. Also if your dogs have particularly hairy ears can make reading them a bit of a problem!

Jesse

IT GOING TO BE  LEGAL IN NEW ZEALAND IN A COUPLE OF YEARS TIME.
HOW THEIR ARE GOING TO START IT THAT ALL BREEDERS WILL HAVE TO HAVE THEIR LITTERS CHIP BEFORE THEY GO TO THEIR NEW OWNERS AND THE FORMS WILL BE FILL OUT BYE THE NEW OWNERS DETAIL.

THIS IS WHAT I HAVE DONE IN THE UK WITH SOME LITTERS ALREADY CHIP AT 7 TO 8 WEEKS OLD WITH THE NEW OWNERS DETAIL ON THE FORM,IT ONE LESS THINK TO WORRY ABOUT GETTING DONE AT THE VETS.

AT THE END OF IT ALL, MINE ARE CHIPPED PLUS A LITTER I HAD IN APRIL,SO IT DOWN TO THE BREEDER IF THEIR WANT THIER LITTER CHIPPED BEFORE THEY GO.NOT THE ONWER OF THE NEW PUPPY IF THEY DIDNT LIKE IT THAT II BEEN CHIP, THEN I WOULD NOT SELL A PUPPY TO THEM.
I THINK ALL LITTERS SHOULD BE ID BEFORE THEY LEAVE THE NEST.

When I left NZ 11 years ago, it was also compulsory for anyone owning a dog to have a licence for it - if I remember rightly, cost about $80 a year.
  Hilda

How was it enforced, Hilda? Did the dog have to wear a special tag or something as proof?

Hi Jeangenie,
     I'm really not sure how the licensing was enforced - at the time I lived there I never had a dog myself, but did have friends who did, though I don't remember any special tags as such.  I suppose any dog owner could be stopped and asked to provide proof of a licence (paperwork), and I'm pretty sure if you didn't have one it meant a hefty fine.  I expect people did get away with it though - I mean, really, what are the chances of being caught?  Mind you, I've got a vague memory that they did sometimes have people going door to door, asking if you had a dog, and even if you said no, the neighbours could dob you in!  Next time my friend phones from NZ, I will ask her, as she's had a collie for the last 12 years or so.
  Hilda

I do all my pups before they go as Well. I also register them all in my name so I have an excuse to contact the new owners to tell them the certificate has arrived and I'm sending it on!! Hopefully then I find out how pups are doing.

Jesse

Yes but I prefer the CHOiCE of method.  I have the puppies from every litter I have bred, I prefer the visible deterent of the Tattoo.  I did eventually decide to have them all chipped too when I did the Younger two for Pet Passport, and have had a young 11 week old pup chipped for the first time.  The puppy and one of my adults bled from the chip site, the adult squealing more than when she was ear tattooed, or innoculated.

As there are variouus methods of Identifying a dog, surely we should have a choice, or like me use more than one (I use three).

Why is the UK always so far behind?  I have been saying for years that it should be made a legal reqirement for ALL breeders to be made responsible for identifying their puppies before they go to their first owner.
After all it does make so much sense to have permanent identification.
There aretoo many dogs that go missing and never found or returned to their righful owners.
Above all (I believe that no puppy should be sold from a third party) no one can be certain when a puppy is sold from a third party ie pet licence holders premises that it is the puppy the dealer/seller says that it is. The puppy has to be linked by indentification to its paperwork, there is no other way of doing this.
I hope that the UK wakes up soon and adopts the same responsible attitude as New Zealand, in the meantime why dont breeders willing permantly identify their puppies now?  

Responsible breeders do. It's the rest who couldn't be bothered.

I still haven't had an answer to my question how is the law enforced in New Zealand? It's all very well passing a law, but if it isn't enforced, then it's pointless.

Would be interesting to know JG, the reason licensing was dropped in the UK was because it was not possible to police and it was only the responsible who bothered. If we had a tattoo or chip law it would be the responsible who would and the back street breeder and the puppy farmer who would not bother. There is a much smaller population in NZ so may be the local police can go round and check all dogs in their area but there would be an outcry here if that was tried we guard our liberty too much to put up with that. Then, of course, there is the Irish imports.

Actually, its irrelevant if your dog is stolen.......

Sadly a microchip does not prove ownership of a dog in a case of theft....if your dog is stolen, taken to a new vets an they scan it, their loyalty lies with the new owner, not the previous one, so they are under NO obligation to inform the previous owner!
Also, the RCVS recommends that vets do NOT inform previous owners.

I am not convinced that chips are that good. I know that there is one scanner between three dog wardens here, not all dogs get scanned for a chip.
Ive just today read on another board, posted by a vet nurse, that some wardens/rescues dont scan crossbreeds as they are unlikely to be chipped.
Then of course, chips can move, and not everyone scanning a dog will scan the whole dog, just bits of it.
The other thing is, it is incredibly easy to remove a chip.

Em

Hi Robert

In Denmark it is law to either microchip or eartattoo your dog.

My Luna was chipped, when she went to the vet at 7 weeks at age, where thepuppies (her and her sisters and brothers) were also given their first vaccination. I went and picked her up at the owners of her mother, when she was 8½ weeks old.

I think chipping is better than a tattoo in the ear, but thats just me. I don't like the color in the ear!

Jeanette

I agree with Briedog and think ALL litters should be chipped before they leave the breeder AND that the central database should retain the Breeders details as well as the new owners.  No ifs, no buts or excuses, every dog should be permanently and uniquely identified.

But then, I am also one of those strange people who see no problem with identity cards and don't consider an infringment on my civil liberties (whatever they are) as it has the potential to stop so much fraud and, in the long run, save us all money

There is no way I would ever chip one of my dogs. I do tattoo them, but I am not convinced the chip stays where it is put, since I do scan dogs and notice that not all the chips can be read, I wonder if it is worth the effort. Also whether a warden has a scanner or not, some I know do not bother to use it to check the dog for a chip. I rely on tattoos and tags. Both are visiable means of identification.
I was sent an article from America, in which it says in some states it is law to chip your dogs, but as some chips will not scan they dog also has to have a tag to say it is chipped and have it's chip number on the tag.

i live in Tiptree Essex and our police station is always closed and if you phone them you get put through to colchester police station, so if we need the police for anything they are 10 miles away,
i have Toby chipped i do think its a good thing although i have a identity tag too because if someone local found him they could just phone me to pick him up,
Heidi

thank you for backing me up,breeders names are on the forms with a contact number,when i have chip puppys of 7 to 8 weeks no noise.then happy to go back with their siblings.

In Spain, they have to be chipped/tattoed before you can register them, also the winner of the main CC from Madrid is DNA`d. My lot never made a peep when they got chipped.

Christine, Spain.

Hudson was chipped already when we picked him up at 8 weeks old as was all the litter. We have never had any problems with the chip and it is checked whenever we go to the vets .

Like Kerioak , I am another odd person who ahs no problems with ID cards ...mind you , that may be because we had them when I was a child and lived on RAF bases ;)

Every one has ID cards in one form or another, whether its a bus pass, library ticket, driving licence or credit card, the list is endless,they all identify us, so why are some people against another form of identity, I can think of much worse things the government are implementing, with out a murmur from any one.

If it was made law that every puppy had to be permanently identified before it could go to a new owner, with proper penalties that were enforced to breeders who didn't, then surely that would go some way in preventing irresponsible breeding.

But then if the government can't do any thing about the disgraceful puppy farms, their hardly likely to do anything about a few strays. :(

Robert

One point that has not been made in this discussion is that hip scoring, elbow scoring, eye testing etc is next to useless without permanent identification.

Too much is left to trust when checking a dogs health status and it is easy for the unscrupulous to use a 'ringer' to obtain a health certificate.

The sooner that the KC/BVA make identification compulsory when using their health scemes, the better.

snomaes

At least its getting closer - the microchip or tattoo numbers are put on the hip x-ray forms

We got our girl micro-chipped and she never bothered, i am very skeptical about how they work though because at the time we queried the vet who admitted they do not routinely scan new dogs for chips unless the owner asks.
I worry that if she got lost someone would keep her, and the only chance i'd have was if the vet scanned her but then even that is unlikely.