Make Chips Count

The challenge

With new reports indicating that dog theft is on the rise, it’s now more important than ever to ensure that we’re doing everything we can to keep our pets safe.

At present, there are more than 15 UK pet databases³ on the market offering to store your microchip details, making it hard to know where to start if you’ve found a stray or lost pet.

And this isn’t just a problem for pet owners or the general public. Vets, police, local authorities, and rescuers also need to search each individual database to identify a pet’s owner as there is currently no centralised database, making the task of reuniting pet and owner a longer and more challenging process.

Following recommendations stemming from a 2021 Pet Theft Taskforce report, an eight-week consultation sought views on having a single point of access so microchip records can be found quickly to help identify owners and keepers of pets.

As of today, there is still no clear guidance on whether this recommendation will be implemented.

What you should know

James Daly MP will present a new Bill on microchips scheduled for further debate in parliament in March 2023. Some of the potential measures being put forward may include:⁵

Tuk’s Law. The mandatory requirement for vets to scan cats and dogs for microchips before carrying out euthanasia/initiating end of life care.

At 16 months old and healthy, Tuk was euthanised by a vet who failed to scan the dog for his original chip. Had Tuk been checked, it would have become clear that the person requesting euthanasia was not the registered keeper and that a rescue (charity) backup was detailed on the microchip. This unnecessary death launched a petition by campaigners Sue Williams and Dawn Ashley and gathered 121,000 signatures in support.⁶

Gizmo’s Law. The mandatory requirement to scan for microchips when a cat is found dead by the roadside.

Currently, local authorities must report when a dog is found deceased following a roadside incident and make efforts to return the body to the owner, however, this is not the case with cats. A petition originally undertaken by Helena Abrahams, inspired the campaign after her cat Gizmo was disposed of after being hit by a car, with no attempt made to reunite her with her beloved pet.⁷ The petition received over 107,000 signatures.⁸

At Animal Friends, we also want to advocate for the inclusion of Fern’s Law; a separate campaign which seeks to make microchip scanning compulsory when a vet sees a pet for the first time, and/or during a pet’s annual check-up.

Fern’s Law:  A petition that seeks to make microchip scanning compulsory upon first presentation at a vet surgery.

While good vet practices always scan a pet for a microchip, it is not currently a mandatory requirement. The petition for Fern’s Law received widespread support with over 112,000 signatures⁹ after Fern, a female Spaniel, was stolen from Chessington and was only reunited with her owners six years later after being scanned by a vet when she had been found abandoned and brought in as a stray.

If you would like to know more about Fern’s moving story, you can read about it here.¹⁰