OneKind welcomes the the announcement that all dogs in Scotland will need to be microchipped from April 2016 under a planned change in the law by the Scottish government.

This will mean Scotland . Wales and England will all operate a microchipping regime system at the same time. Last year when the Scottish Government was consulting on the introduction of a compulsory microchipping scheme OneKind proposed that dog owners must microchip their dogs and the owner’s details be kept up to date on the register, as part of a free licensing scheme designed to promote responsible dog ownership.

Like many responsible dog owners we had our dog Declan chipped as a puppy. Thankfully we’ve never needed to use the service as Declan has not been lost. Much to our relief, as he is one of the family and we would all be devastated if we had lost him, and he couldn’t be found. Certainly Microchipping is successful in increasing the number of lost dogs that can be reunited worth their owners.

So it’s good that a scheme will be compulsory. One of the arguments against was cost, particularly in these times of austerity. So it’s great to see the Dogs Trust are willing to microchip all dogs, for free, in the run up to the legislation coming in. Let’s hope the scheme works and we see a welcome increase in reuniting lost dogs with their owners.