Cat owners face £500 fine if they don’t follow new rule by June
If you have a cat, you have three months to make sure you’re up to date with new laws.
From June, all pet cats must be microchipped – or their owners could be hit with a £500 fine.
It brings cats into line with the rules already in place for dogs since 2016, and makes it possible to easily reunite pets with their owners if they go missing.
The only cats exempt from the rule are ones that don’t have a specific owner and live more communally, such as farm cats.
Even indoor cats need to be chipped, in case they escape through an open window or door.
In fact, indoor cats can even be more at risk as if they escape they are in unfamiliar surroundings.
Owners will have until they are 20 weeks old to get it sorted out, with the procedure usually costing around £10 or £20 at the vet.
There are over 11 million pet cats in England, according to Mayhew animal welfare charity who pushed for the change in the law.
Of those, there are at least 2.3 million without a microchip, meaning they are at risk of getting lost and not being reunited with their owners.
If a pet is found as a stray, it is very easy for vets to scan their chip and find the personal details of their family.
But it is important that owners keep their details up to date, for example if they move house.
Microchipping is safer and more reliable than using a tag on a collar, as collars can sometimes fall off or become too tight and injure or even kill the cat.
A microchip does not have an internal battery or power source so it will never wear out or become inactive.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.