Microchipping becomes law on Monday

[Needanadultgapyear]

Just to remind everyone that finally on Monday it becomes law that any overlord over the age on 20 weeks must have a microchip.
The fine for your cat not having a chip will be £500.
Just about the only part of the governments previous manifesto they managed to deliver!

It's about time.

Sadly I think it won't make any difference. It's already the law to have dogs microchipped but nobody ever enforces it.

The obvious problem with this law is if you find a cat with no microchip you won't know who to fine because it's got no... yeah. It's no good saying it was going into this house so it must live there - cats don't work like that!

What is the purpose of it?

I don't see what they're hoping to gain by making it compulsory

Reuniting cats with their owners when they are lost or injured. In worst case scenarios at least letting owners know that their much loved pet has passed.
Vets practices up and down the land holding lost cats and the bodies of passed cats for a period of time in the hope of being able to give the owners closure.

So that injured or dead cats can be reunited with their owners, and so that owned cats aren't accidentally taken in and re-homed as strays.

I got my three cats microchipped as kittens. They are 11 years old now. At their last checkup and vaccination appointment they scanned all three and couldn't find the chip on one of them.

Do I need to get her redone according to this law? And if so, do I need to do it right now or can I wait until August when her vaccinations are due and get it done then.

She hates being picked up or held, and hates the carrier even more - it's a nightmare just to get her there once a year and she sulks and hides away for a week or two afterwards so I'm reluctant to take her twice within a couple of months if it's not needed.

I had to get the carrier out to take one of the others to the vet for an abscess and she took one look at me holding it and dived under the kitchen counter!

If you've already chipped her and have proof of it then I really wouldn't worry.

She needs to have scannable chip. Some chips do fail, but most chip companies will provide another chip FOC in this instance. Contacted the chip company.
But yes it can wait till August.
The law is a scannable chip not proof you had the cat chipped. The point of the law is ensure that as many lost and injured cats are successfully reunited with theirownersasposdoble.

The law might say "a scannable chip" but unless you use a chipped cat flap or feeder, you have no way of knowing either way.

Mine are all chipped but they come in/out through the window so the chip is just there if they go wandering and get lost. The vet did check the youngest recently but otherwise I'd have no way of knowing either way.