Responsibility is not often pleasant or, in some cases, inexpensive. However, it really is important to chip an animal should they turn up missing. Check out what the Brits are doing to solve the problem of animal displacement!
Microchipping has been the law in Northern Ireland for four years, but it wasn’t until April 6 of this year that the Scots, English, and Welsh followed suit. Under the new law, if a dog over the age of 8 weeks is found to be unchipped, the owner will have 21 days to have it done or pay a £500 fine (that’s more than $700). On the whole, it’s a pretty lenient policy that gives owners plenty of opportunity to do the right thing; it’s not like Queen Elizabeth will be sipping Earl Grey and petting her Corgis while she oversees decapitations of non-compliant owners at the Tower of London. (Although the imagery might work well in an absurdist farce to be written at a later date.)
It’s not unreasonable to expect people to take care of their dogs and to legislate a certain standard of care. I expect people to feed their dogs regularly, get them vaccinations and other basic medical care, bathe them, and so on. When someone starts to neglect those duties, most of us wouldn’t have any problem with calling legal authorities on them. My first response to the news item — the one that so many other people probably have — is based in part on the fact that the ID microchips seem so much like something out of any number of science-fiction dystopias like those in 1984, Neuromancer, or The Prisoner. The idea of using identity microchips for human beings surfaces periodically, and understandably there’s a huge backlash against it even as a hypothetical proposal. I’ve been known to be right at the front lines of such backlashes.
In other words, dog adoption is not something to be taken lightly, despite what many pet parents believe! If forced to chip their dogs the bad owners, the ones who get bored with their pet after a few years, would probably be less likely to drop off Fido in the middle of nowhere and/or hope someone else will take on the responsibility!
So, let’s all microchip our pets and make certain they live happy and secure lives with the families that love them! To learn more about this important process, visit Dogster.
