Cat microchips made mandatory in move to ‘protect millions of pets’

Owners face fines of £500 if they do not comply with requirements of new animal welfare legislation

CAT owners must microchip their pets or face a £500 fine under new government rules unveiled today.

Ministers have approved proposals, first set out in the 2019 Conservative manifesto, to require cats to be chipped before they reach 20 weeks.

The move will cover up to 2.8million unchipped cats, about a quarter of the nation’s 10.8 million animals. It aims to ensure they can easily be reunited with their owners if they are lost, or stolen and resold.

Cats Protection, the biggest feline welfare charity, said that 80 per cent of the stray cats that arrive at its centres were not microchipped. The problem may have become more acute as cat ownership rose sharply during the pandemic. It increased by 600,000 last year.

Pet theft also surged during the Covid crisis, with the number of cats stolen rising 12.3 per cent in the year to April, and up three-fold in the past five years as the value of the most expensive breeds rose to £2,000.

Bengal, Siamese, British shorthair and Maine Coon are the most commonly stolen cats in the UK. They are targeted for breeding or resale, with pedigree kittens selling for £500 each.

Under the Government’s plans, which were backed by 99 per cent of respondents to a Whitehall consultation, owners must chip their animals and ensure their contact details are stored and kept up to date in a pet microchipping database.

The procedure is painless and involves inserting a tiny chip with a unique serial number under the animal’s skin. A scanner is used to read the number and check it against the database to identify the owner. Ministers are yet to unveil the precise date for introducing the new rules, which aim to offer owners peace of mind. The Government is reviewing existing regulations on dog microchipping, which is already mandatory, to see if improvements can be made.

The rules on cats will be implemented alongside any update to the rules on dogs after the review.

Lord Goldsmith, the animal welfare minister, said: “Cats are much-loved parts of our families and making sure that they’re microchipped is the best possible way of making sure that you are reunited with them if they are ever lost or stolen.”

He said the new rules would help protect “millions of cats” and dovetailed with a range of other protections the Government is introducing under its action plan for animal welfare.

This includes new legislation to tackle puppy smuggling and the introduction of a new pet abduction offence to crack down on theft.