Microchip Information
Dog Microchipping Law
Since April 2016 it is law for the keeper of a dog to keep their address dates up to date, failure to comply could result in a £500 fine. Your address and pet details must be registered along with your microchip number on an approved pet microchip database.
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Cat Microchipping Law
New legislation in 2023 states that cats must be implanted with a microchip before they reach 20 weeks and their contact details stored and kept up to date in a DEFRA compliant, pet microchipping database. All owners must have their cat microchipped by 10 June 2024. Failure to comply could result in a £500 fine.
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What is a microchip?
A microchip is the size of a tiny grain of rice that contains a unique code (like a bar code) which is inserted by a vet under the skin of the animal (usually at the back of the neck). The unique code, is then linked to the owners details, name, address, phone number in a microchip database. The unique code is a number that can be read using a microchip scanner.
Why have a microchip?
In the event that a dog/cat gets separated from it’s owner, by loss, theft or some other circumstance, this means that the animal can be taken to a vet where the microchip is scanned and the owners can be contacted, and pet and owner reunited.
Rocky Road Rescue and Microchipping
All the dogs and cats had their microchips implanted in Romania, this is documented in the Pet Passport and Health Check documentation.
Once the dogs and cats are on transport their microchips are registered with Rocky Road Rescue as the keeper. This is done using the microchip database company Animal Tracker – www.animaltracker.co.uk with Rocky Road Rescue defined as a Welfare Organisation.
When the dog/cat arrives with the adopter, Rocky Road Rescue transfers the keepership of the animal over to the adopter.
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The new adopter receives a code on email and/or text from Animal Tracker/RRR which provides details of how to register the animal with the new owner.
It is the responsibility of the new owner to ensure the details are kept up to date.
Where dogs and cats that come to the UK and go into foster, Rocky Road Rescue retain keepership until the animal is adopter.
If a dog or cat is surrendered back to Rocky Road Rescue, it is a condition of the surrender that the keepership of the animal is transferred back to Rocky Road Rescue.
By having the chip registered to Rocky Road Rescue initially means that in the event that the microchip number of an animal that has been re-homed and entered into the Animal Tracker database, or given to a member of the Animal Tracker team by an external party, Rocky Road Rescue information will be displayed, even when the microchip has been registered to a new keeper.