Defra recently announced that cat microchipping will become mandatory in 2023. In our opinion this is excellent news, we help get lost pets home every week but we also hear lots of stories where pets aren’t microchipped and don’t make it home or take much longer to get home. This is particularly true with cats.
Lost cats
We say this is particularly true of cats as we’ve heard many stories of cats who are lost, not microchipped then re-homed. Their owners never know where they went to and presume them deceased. It’s exceptionally sad but with over 10 million cats in the UK this is happening every day.
An even sadder case is when a deceased cat is handed into a vet clinic, if there is a microchip that can help the Veterinary clinic track the owner to letting them know, savings days and weeks of anguish not knowing what happened.
The stats
With 10 million cats in the UK they aren’t far behind the number of dogs which currently sits around 13 million dogs.
Taking our database we have roughly 80% of animals as dogs and only 15% being cats.
We believe this shows that there is a lot of work to be done.
Why is cat microchipping becoming mandatory?
Defra carried out a consultation and some of the main points that came out of this are:
- 99% of respondents supported compulsory cat microchipping in England
- 92% of respondents supported the proposal that only owned cats, and not feral cats with no owner, should be microchipped
- 95% of respondents supported microchipping cats by the age of 16 weeks unless there is a certified health reason why they should be exempt
- 91% of respondents supported mirroring the approach to enforcement contained in the Microchipping of Dogs (England) Regulations 2015 (‘the 2015 Regulations’)
This shows there is very strong support in the UK to make cat microchipping mandatory and Defra confirmed they will do this in a statement last year which you can see HERE.
What should I do as a cat owner?
Don’t wait until it’s a legal requirement, talk to your vet today about microchipping your cat.
The sooner you do this the safer your cat will be.
I’ve personally taken many calls where a pet owner says “I never thought my cat / my dog would go missing”. Don’t let this happen to you and make sure of the following:
- Ensure your pet is microchipped
- If your pet is microchipped ensure your pet’s microchip data is up to date.
- If you’re not sure which database your pet’s microchip is registered on search it HERE and we will tell you which database the microchip is stored on if any!
- If your pet’s microchip isn’t registered register today with us by clicking HERE.
