Campaigns

A microchip, sadly, does not guarantee that you and your cat will be reunited if your cat goes missing. The chip needs to be scanned to be read, the cat must be scanned thoroughly since occasionally microchips `migrate', and the scanner must be fully charged and operating properly.

These are just some of the barriers that prevent the microchip from doing the job it is meant to do: reuniting missing pets with their owners.

- Not all vet practices scan animals on their first visit.

- Not all local authorities scan animals found dead on the road.

- Not all animal rescue centres scan animals brought to them for rehoming.

- People who use scanners are not always properly trained and the scanner is not always kept functioning properly.

- There is more than one data base for microchip information, though Petlog is by far the largest and best-known one in the UK.

- There are different types of chips, and not all scanners can read all types of chips.

Our campaigns – and those of others whose campaigns we support – attempt to address some of these issues:

• Vets Get Scanning Cats Too

• Councils Get Scanning

• Scanner Appeals

Please contact us with ideas for other practical, non-confrontational campaigns, or if you know of campaigns already operating to which we should link.

STOP PRESS:

Write to your MP to ask him or her to sign Early Day Motion 2079 `Local Authorities and microchipped animals'.

Read the motion and find out whether your MP has signed here.

Download a letter template from Cats Protection.