Cat owners face new microchipping laws from Monday
Cat owners have less than a week to make sure their feline friends are microchipped, ahead of a new law coming into force on Monday.
Last updated 5th Jun 2024
In less than a week, cat owners in England will be under the same obligation as dog owners to make sure their pets are fitted with a microchip.
A new law comes into force on Monday 10th June 2024, requiring all owned cats over 20 weeks of age, even indoor cats, to be registered to their owner on a DEFRA approved database.
Only unowned cats, like feral and community cats, will be exempt from the rules.
If owners miss the 10th June deadline, they'll be given a grace period of 21 days to make sure their pets are microchipped, or they risk a fine of up to £500.
This is a law that Cats Protection has been campaigning for. Abbi Fairclough is the Regional Volunteer Team Leader for the charity in the North West: "We're looking at around 2.2million cats in England that we suspect aren't microchipped, so we are really hoping this will mean we get the opportunity to do an awful lot more reuniting than rehoming. It's always ideal to get cats back to where they came from. Getting those 2.2 million cats microchipped will make a massive difference.
"We are hoping that the vast majority of owners will follow along with this legislation. The main reason that people don't have their cats microchipped at the moment is because the cat doesn't go outside, but cats are masters of escape and they can shimmy out of a window easily. It's those cats that are really at risk of not finding their way home because they don't know where they are.
"At the moment we're seeing around 120 people a year prosecuted for not complying with a notice to microchip a dog, so it's possible we will face similar issues. We also have to recognise that there will be a disproportionate amount of stray cats with no microchips than stray dogs with no microchips, because we generally find that we have more stray cats in the UK than stray dogs."
Currently this law will only take affect in England. Cats Protection continues to campaign for the laws in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
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