England microchipping law for pet cats in force from today

[Scampuss]

From Cats Protection:

All pet cats in England must be microchipped by 10 June 2024. The new rules means that cats must be microchipped before they reach the age of 20 weeks, except for unowned cats like feral and community cats. Indoor-only cats must be microchipped as well. As part of the new rules, you must keep your contact details up to date on a Defra-approved microchipping database.

If you miss the June deadline, the new law states you'll have 21 days to have your cat microchipped, or you may face a fine of up to £500.

https://www.cats.org.uk/help-and-advice/neutering-and-vaccinations/microchipping-your-cat

Now they need a similar law about neutering, with anyone who wants to breed their cat having to get a licence in order to be exempt.

Where I grew up (Massachusetts) dogs had to be registered and licensed (this was pre- microchips). And they needed their vaccines to be registered (rabies being an issue there). Also it was far cheaper if your dog had been neutered. They could do the same with dogs and cats here.

@mondaytosunday Dogs do have to be microchipped by law in the England (not sure about the rest of the UK) now. They used to have to be licensed, but the costs was nominal & so many didn't bother, that the scheme cost a LOT more to run than any revenue - there have been murmurs for a while about bringing it back, but the subject dies every time.

However since the upturn in ownership of more potentially dangerous breeds, and the increase in numbers of dog attacks in recent years, talk about dog registration has started back up again. Which I'm all in favour of.

Oh and my cats are indoor only, but I would never consider not having them microchipped or vaccinated just in case.

@Allergictoironing

yes, I totally get why owners choose to do both.

I don't understand the point of making it compulsory? What are they trying to achieve?

I moved house recently and when I went to update dcat’s microchip details I was surprised that it seemed like I had to pay to do that. They wanted a subscription for unlimited changes but I’m not planning to move again. So it left it (thinking at least phone number and email is up to date). But I was surprised! It’s MiPet I think. Perhaps I should take another look as that doesn’t seem right

Cat tax - ffs.

I don't see how they plan on enforcing this.

Dogs are legally required to be chipped but loads aren't and AFAIK there are no legal repercussions.

My 5 year old female and 10 month old male are chipped and neutered. Had them done at 3 months. 😀🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛

no legal repercussions (yet) but financial if your pet gets lost or needs vet care or it's a requirement of insurance.

I think it's always been so: pay to have to details updated. I guess they don't want to put people off having the procedure done in the first place, so that's relatively cheap.

Yes it definitely wasn’t explained when the chip was done

It won't be enforced. Dog microchipping isn't. It's not up to vets to enforce, who exactly is going to go around scanning cats? Saying that it is a good idea to have your cat chipped. I used to work in cat rescue and so many lost cats could have been reunited with their owners if they had been chipped, although many of them were but the owner's forgot to update contact details which was actually a bigger problem. I hope it encourages more responsible cat ownership, too many people just leave cats behind etc when they move. It's not acceptable.

Vets can't enforce the law though, they can only say "he/she needs to be chipped".

If a cat is brought in that's not chipped, they're not going to call the police on the owners.

It might encourage more people to chip their cats.

It might reduce the burden on rescues picking up the pieces after un-chipped cats get abandoned/lost and end up in rescue.

That's how we got one of our cats. She's clearly been a pet and probably a loved one by the way she behaves, but she was found straying with a litter of kittens and no microchip. Someone's loss, our gain. She's fully "done" now, of course. But as you say, it could have saved the rescue some trouble and cost, as if they didn't have enough to do with all the genuine strays/ferals needing their help.

@Anniegetyourgun my latest was probably a pet for a very short time before she started straying as she was semi-feral, about a year old, quite underweight, and with her 2 older fully feral kittens when she was picked up by an rspca inspector. She's a lovely cat, but has 'issues' as a result.