We found a dog at work on Thursday morning, it appeared that the poor thing had been tied to a metal post all night. I would guess that the type of owner that would do that to a dog wouldn’t be the kind of owner that would go and get a dog chipped. The she had recently had pups so I would question whether the owner would get the pups chipped?
Complete waste of time introducing compulsory chips for dogs imo.
Dogs offer a companionship and increased quality of life to many on the edge of society, who can’t afford the cost of chipping or don’t have a fixed address (defies the point). On the flipside i’ve heard tails of dog theives ‘digging chips out’. Not nice. That said ours is chipped. But no, the people they are claiming to be trying to stop, will just ignore it.
In respect to violent dogs/owners, it would be far more effective to make dog insurance compulsory, if for no other reason than giving the authorities a reason to impound the dogs.
Make it compulsory for all dogs.
Grace period of say, six months.
Employ people to check and then destroy any animal found without a chip if the owner refuses to go ahead.
No need to do it with humans, we can all be traced pretty easily anyway.
6000 people treated in hospital every year due to dog bites – obviously only a small proportion of owners are irresponsible, but it’s still quite a large number.
6000 people treated in hospital every year due to dog bites
I’m not sure how microchipped dogs would change this?
My dog is chipped incase she gets lost, I have an interest in keeping the details up-to-date. If I was a chav with a vicious dog why would I have it registered under my real/name address?
Even if ID has to be shown on first registration the details are easy to change at a later date.
On the flipside if it is enforced effectively it should massively increase the number of people prosecuted for animal cruelty and mistreatment of their pets, and that can be no bad thing.
As the system stands it’s easy to change the details that are linked to the chip, all you have to do is login online and change them.
The system needs to have this change of details as a possibility. It could become more official – like cars for example – with ID/proof of address etc, but until this is added into the process then simply microchipping all dogs achieves nothing.
Oh FFS another law. This is so typical of society today, make a new law, lay off the responsibility onto someone or something else. The government can say “We are doing something (so re-elect us)” instead of saying “You know what, in a democracy with freedom of choice bad things will happen. That’s how it goes”.
Hey, what about cars? Hundreds of people die on the roads every year. Are cars banned? No. Guess why. Because car owners pay millions of pounds per year in taxes.
For the record, my dog is chipped and insured, wormed, flea-ed, trained, walked blah blah blah
Dogs offer a companionship and increased quality of life to many on the edge of society, who can’t afford the cost of chipping
The article said “every newborn puppy” so unlikely to affect those owners. Furthermore if they can’t afford to microchip a dog then they almost certainly can’t afford to feed it. Plus charities like the Dogs Trust will do it for free anyway.
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Hey, what about cars? Hundreds of people die on the roads every year. Are cars banned?
Calm down Karinofnine, no one has said anything about banning dogs.
Hi Ernie. Not on this thread. But there have been others about muzzling/banning.
You’re an anarchist. A true one I mean. Not those tossers one used to see with an A in a circle on their T-shirts. I reacted negatively to one of your earlier posts (thinking of the dole-ey image) but now I (think, hope) appreciate the ideal of people taking responsibility for/owning their behaviour. Much like witchcraft actually and close to my own ideals.
But I digress… apologies to the OP.
Yes, people get bitten by dogs. We get burnt by kettles, crushed by cars, fall off ladders, ingest various household poisons, cut ourselves with knives. Point is: the advantages of having all these things by far outweighs the disadvantages.
As with gun owners, law-abiding dog owners will comply, others will cock a snoot and if their dog gets confiscated and destroyed – so what?
Once chipping is compulsory, we could have electric ramps at various point in cities and towns. When a dog goes over the ramp, it could track the chip. If there’s no chip, a fatal electric shock could be administered through the ramp.
Rather than chip individual dogs, wouldn’t it be better to introduce a dog ownership licence? A potential dog owner would have to demonstrate that they can look after a dog properly and meet basic dog welfare standards, but also that they control the dog properly in a public place and deal responsibly with any waste etc.
Fail to meet the basic standards and you can’t keep a dog…
salsaboy – Member
I will NOT get my dog chipped, ever.
why not? Our’s is chipped. If she is ever stolen and taken to a vet for the first time the vet will scan her and find out she’s stolen.
Our cat is chipped too in case he’s in an accident and the lambs have ear tags (one is RFID). If there was a chipping system for kids I’d have them done too!
I’ve just come across this thread and having been involved in a campaign to publicise a lost dog on a national basis, chipping is a waste of time IMO. Fact: Owners do not routinely update the details on the chip. There are many “found” dogs who have out of date details and cannot be returned to their owners so they end up in a pound and after 7 days can be legally re-homed or put to sleep.
For all those STWer dog owners who believe a chip will reunite you with your lost dog, I am afraid to advise you that there is no guarantee this will happen. Fact: Vets do not routinely scan dogs on a first visit. How do I know this? During the period that I helped to publicise “Rags” a group of volunteers spent a couple of weeks phoning, writing and emailing every veterinary surgeon in the UK.
If you are unfortunate to loose your dog and it is killed on the Highways or Railways again, the local authorities who pick up these bodies, will dispose of them but will not scan them before their disposal. So what is the point of a dog being chipped? IMO, chip companies are making a fortune of a useless piece of equipment!