http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17797194

Good luck with that one... and yes, even your dog has to be tracked these days, alright?

*shurg* Don't see the big deal myself. Microchipping is a really good way of making sure that if your dog gets lost it can be returned to you. We've had all our cats done, it cost us £6 for each and it gives us peace of mind while they're roaming. It's not as though they can track your dog using GPS or anything, it's only if your dog gets picked up by the RSPCA or is taken into a vet office.

It's not about tracking the dog, it's about tracing the owners when the dog goes walkies unsupervised.
Hopefully this'll lead to penalties for those irresponsible owners that just abandon their pets.

Mark

Will the "bad " owners - and breeders - actually pay much attention. The chip systerm is only as good as the database.

Well, if they're talking about making it law then it'll be a requirement of breeders to chip puppies before they can sell them and they will most likely be required to reigster the new owners details like they do with breeding papers. The guy down the street who hasn't spayed his dogs and has ended up with a litter he's trying to flog may be a different story, but since they have to be vaccinated anyway the vets will no doubt check them at vaccination stage.

This is a Good Thing, imho.

If they're just flogging them do you think they'll be vaccinated+chipped

I'd be surprised if people didn't vaccinate. If they don't they run a good chance of losing their pet to something treatable and if you've just spent upwards of £100 (sometime plus much) on a dog, feeding it etc, an extra £20 on vaccinations isn't going to break you.

I'm not sure TBH. While I think it's a good idea in principle I doubt very much it'll actually catch out the people they want to catch out - the ones who use dogs as weapons/status symbols or for fighting. If you could make sure every dog would be done and the database would be kept reasonably up to date then I'm all for it, however if it's just going to add extra burden to those who are already responsible with their dog then it fails misserably at its goal.

I'm not sure either, I mean, there are some dogs that will slip through the net and that's going to be the case no matter what. Dogs involved in illegal fighting etc, but then frankly I *hope* those dogs maul their owners to death in recompense for a life of misery, terror and pain. A status dog wouldn't be much good IMO if it's sick or diseased and the majority of dogs will be covered because they will either be pure breed with papers (even Rottys and Staffys) which would be a status thing in itself, owned by responsible people, or reported to the authorities and their owners prosecuted.

I was staggered to hear that 40,000 attacks on Post and Utility people were recorded in one year (it didn't say which year) and having dogs chipped so they can be identified when reported will really be a big help. There's also the knock-on effect that if people who own and register a dog sell it on, they will want to update the register with the new owners details so they don't get blamed for anything the dog does in the future.

I guess like anything else there will always be naysayers and I've no doubt some dogs will slip through, but I'd be willing to bet the vast majority will be sorted. We'll certainly be chipping our dogs when we get them, regardless of it being the law.