Focus Spring 2016
Page 53
Grooming weekdays, evenings
And Saturdays
Dogs that are
regularly Groomed Have...
Grooming carried out by a fully insured,
qualified and caring Canine beautician
Call Michele on
01787 238514
or 07788804887
Little Yeldham
Horse and Pony
clipping also available
October - February
Happy Tails
Happy Tails
The Old Filling Station, Lower Road, Glemsford, Suffolk CO10 7QU
01787 827110 sales@stourmeadowsanimalsupplies.co.uk
Horse Rug & Dog Bed cleaning service available
Microchipping to become compulsory
From 6 April 2016 all dogs in England, Scotland and Wales
will be legally required to be microchipped and their details
registered on one of the authorised databases such as Pet-
log. Northern Ireland has already introduced this measure.
The idea behind this move, which has been campaigned for by
numerous animal pressure groups working collectively as the
Microchipping Alliance, a group which includes the British
Veterinary Association, the Kennel Club, the Dogs Trust and the
RSPCA, is to encourage all dog owners to take responsibility for
keeping their pet.
How the system will work
Under the law you are obliged to keep your details up to date
on the database. Police and local authority employees will be
issued with microchip reader scanners so that instant enforce-
ment of the law can be carried out. A time window will be
allowed for the owner to get the chipping done if their pet is
caught without a chip. After which a £500 fine for failing to
comply will be issued. Full details of the change to the law will
emerge over the next few months.
If you sell or otherwise pass the dog on, you as the previous
keeper are required to register the new keeper (the wording
used is ‘keeper’ rather than ‘owner’ with regard to microchips).
Similarly if our your dog dies, you must inform the database
that holds your pet’s details.
Puppies must be chipped at their second set of vaccinations –
and around the time they are weaned - at 8 plus weeks.
Why is there seen to be a need for this enforcement?
The majority of owners are naturally very caring and responsi-
ble about their dog, how they treat it and its behaviour in
society. The dogs kept by such owners are often microchipped
already, in order that they can be more easily reunited in the
event of the dog being lost.
Unfortunately some people who keep dogs very clearly are not
responsible enough to have the care of a living creature in their
hands. For one reason or another, neglect, abandonment and
abuse of animals is common place, as is the casual breeding of
dogs as an ‘easy earner’ from breeding puppies in unsuitable
conditions in order to earn a few pounds selling them down the
pub, to full scale puppy farming businesses. One of the
intentions of the legislation is that dogs coming from puppy
farms and other unregulated animal breeding will also be
traceable under the law.
Dogs are stolen quite frequently and it is hoped that microchip-
ping will help in ownership disputes and quicken the process of
reuniting those dogs with their real owners.
With microchipping, keepers and their dogs will have an official
relationship, rather as they did under the old dog licence.
Additionally, the modern technology of microchipping will not
only help lost dogs be re-united with their families, it will also
connect liable human beings to abused animals. Mistreatment
of animals will still happen even if dogs are micrcochipped, but
now there will be some redress against the perpetrator on be-
half of society and – equally importantly - on behalf of the dog.