The existing regulations on registration of pets and the use of implanted identification chips need to be reassessed to better protect house pets, a lawmaker said yesterday.
Despite the introduction of pet registration regulations in 1999, there are still a large number of abandoned animals, including dogs with implanted ID chips, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Wei-cher (
According to the regulations, pet owners must register their animals at agencies affiliated with the Council of Agriculture (COA) or with COA-approved civic groups within four months of the pet's birth.
PHOTO: CNA
However, many pet owners are too lazy to deal with the registration procedures or are unaware that such regulations exist, Huang said.
There are 617,629 registered dogs in the country, accounting for only 44 percent of the total dog population, Huang added.
Identifying lost dogs is complicated by the fact that there are currently two types of ID chip being used in the country, Huang said.
Ju Ching-cheng (
Chip scanners also pose a problem, since US scanners cannot read European chips and vice versa, so when a lost dog is scanned for its ID number, the scanner may not be able to read the chip, making it difficult to find the dog's owner, Huang said.
Ju said that the chips were not regulated because the COA does not have the right to tell chip implanters what brand to use.
However, the COA plans to issue double-frequency scanners which will work on both the US and the European chips next month, Ju said.
Another problem is that the regulations apply mainly to dogs and cats, but more unusual pets like alligators and other reptiles are not registered, Huang said.
The regulations should be broadened to incorporate all pets and the COA must educate pet owners on the registration procedures, Huang added.
There are currently more than 1,100 "pet registration stations" in the country.
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