What you need to know about microchipping your cat as pet owners now face a £500 fine

All cat homeowners ought to now have their pets microchipped with new laws coming into drive on June 10, with hundreds of thousands dealing with £500 fines for now.

It comes as an animal charity mentioned greater than two million cats in England usually are not microchipped.

From Monday, it is going to be necessary for each pet cat in England to be chipped earlier than the age of 20 weeks.

Ministers hope the scheme will assist reunite 1000’s of misplaced pets with their homeowners and deter pet theft.

However of the estimated 9 million pet cats in England, as much as 2.2 million are nonetheless not chipped, in accordance with knowledge from the charity Cats Safety.

Microchipping is just not obligatory at no cost dwelling cats that stay with little or no human interplay or dependency, akin to farm, feral or neighborhood cats.

House owners discovered to not have microchipped their pet could have 21 days to have one implanted or face a wonderful of as much as £500.

In line with Cats Safety analysis, multiple in 4 homeowners (26%) who’ve didn’t microchip mentioned it was as a result of their pet doesn’t enterprise outside, and about one in seven (14%) mentioned their cat was identifiable by its collar.

It often prices between £20 and £30 to have a cat microchipped by a vet, the charity mentioned.

Madison Rogers, head of advocacy, campaigns and authorities relations for Cats Safety, mentioned: “Some homeowners assume they’re by no means going to undergo the trauma of dropping their pet cat, however within the final 12 months 115,000 pet cats in England went lacking and by no means returned residence.

“Cats are nimble and intensely agile and may simply slip out with out us noticing.

“Many misplaced cats stay a daunting life on the streets. No meals, no water, no shelter, no veterinary care and always vulnerable to extreme damage or dying from many hazards akin to vehicles and wild animals.

“Collars can simply drop off, develop into broken in order that the handle particulars develop into unreadable and, if they don’t seem to be fast launch, can develop into snagged on obstacles like tree branches, inflicting accidents to the cat.

“A microchip is protected, stays together with your cat for its lifetime and is linked to contact particulars which are saved safely in a database.”

Alice Potter, cat welfare knowledgeable on the RSPCA, mentioned: “We have now seen cats coming into our care who’re sadly not microchipped and will by no means be reunited with their homeowners.

“On common, 11% of all cats coming into the RSPCA’s care are nonetheless not microchipped.

“We’ve additionally rescued cats who’ve been microchipped however the particulars haven’t been saved updated, which is arguably much more irritating because it means cats spend a very long time in our care while we fruitlessly attempt to contact the proprietor with out-of-date data.

“Nonetheless, we’ve additionally seen numerous tales of cats which have been reunited with their homeowners because of a tiny microchip – displaying what this alteration of laws will obtain for animal welfare.”

Nutmeg, a cat owned by Sandra Sinclair, a instructor from Tooting in south-west London, was discovered wandering the streets of Ascot in Berkshire, 30 miles away from residence, after going lacking.

The feline was reunited together with his household after his microchip was scanned by Cats Safety.

Ms Sinclair mentioned: “We don’t know how he received to Ascot. Did he bounce right into a supply van or possibly somebody tried to steal him as a result of he was so pleasant?

“Solely Nutmeg will ever know, however my household and I are simply so relieved we had him microchipped.”