Microchips and the responsible cat owner

Action on Missing Cats want to promote all aspects of responsible cat ownership.

From the RSPCA website (click through animal care/pet care): `Under the new Animal Welfare Act, which came into force at the end of March 2007, anyone who is responsible for a pet has a legal responsibility to meet the five basic welfare needs of pets. These are:

- a proper diet, including fresh water

- somewhere suitable to live

- any need to be housed with or apart from, other animals

- allowing animals to express normal behaviour

- protect from and treatment of, illness and injury.'

Thankfully these are now legal requirements.

But there are other aspects of pet ownership which, though not legal requirements, and nonetheless part of responsible pet ownership. They also make it less likely that your pet will go irretrievably missing. These include:

- neutering (except in cases where the animal is being used for breeding): an unneutered cat means unwanted kittens, and unneutered male cats are more likely to wander and become lost.

• microchipping:

  what is a microchip?

  why microchip?