San Antonio pet owners may unknowingly be breaking the law
Hundreds of thousands of San Antonio pet owners may unknowingly be breaking the law — but a free service can make things right immediately.
If you live in San Antonio’s city limits, you’re required by city ordinance to have your dog, cat and horse microchipped. Dogs must always wear the ID tag that comes with the microchip when outdoors. A microchip from Animal Care Services is free, and if you live outside the city limits it costs only $5. You also can get your pet microchipped at a low-cost spay-neuter clinic or your vet’s office for a small fee.
Fines for not having your pet microchipped can run $200 to $300.
Microchips are how you register and license your pets with the city. You don’t register your microchip with the city though; you register it with the manufacturer. Microchips get lost pets back home more quickly. They also save taxpayer dollars, because a lost pet doesn’t have to be housed or fed at the city shelter if they can be returned to their owner the same day.
For all this to work though, people have to keep their contact information updated on their pet’s microchip registration. A few months ago, I found a lost dog, but the microchip number on his tag belonged to another pet, an unfortunate switcheroo, perhaps, at a vaccine clinic. I took the dog to the shelter to get scanned anyway and discovered the actual microchip was registered to his owner, so he did get home within a few hours.
If ACS finds your pet doesn’t have a microchip, you aren’t immediately fined. ACS officers will likely educate you about microchips and offer to
If you live in San Antonio’s city limits, you’re required by city ordinance to have your dog, cat and horse microchipped.
microchip your pet right on the spot. They all carry microchips and microchip scanners in their vehicles. If you see them, you could ask them to scan a found pet or microchip your pet, and they will be happy to do it, so long as they are not on a priority call.
There are exceptions to microchipping your pet: if your veterinarian deems it unsafe for your pet for some reason, if you are a pet owner who has had the pet for fewer than 30 days, if you are a nonresident and don’t plan on having the pet in San Antonio for longer than 30 days.
Veterinary experts estimate that only 5 to 8 percent of dogs, cats and horses are microchipped in the U.S. Since 2016, ACS has provided more than 133,000 microchips to San Antonio pets, which is 21 percent of the estimated 600,000 dogs, cats and horses living in the city of San Antonio. It’s great we are above the national average, but wouldn’t it be great if we could become a city where almost every pet is microchipped? It could reduce a lot of animal issues overnight.