petition to make it law to check microchip.

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tinymaze

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hi, I don't know if this link has been posted on here (sorry if it has already) i know i read about her story on here, but here's the link to sign a petition to make it a legal requirement to check a horse's microchip after being found from lost or stolen. as they point out it's a legal requirement to have a chip so they should be checking it by law as well.


http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitio...utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition

thanks
 
Firstly, it is NOT a legal requirement to have your horse microchipped. I believe that foals now need to be but am not a breeder so do not know if this is true.
Secondly. another post pointed out that one company's microchip may not be read by another company's reader.
Thirdly, is every non-horse owner going to be happy to pay for the police time and money? Or do you expect the knackers to carry the cost?
So, no, I will not be supporting your petition.
 
I have signed as it is so important for animals to be traced back to their owners if the worst should happen and if thieves know it is law it may put them off. The petition is nearly up to 4000 signatures and needs just over 1000.
 
It looks like DEFRA is shortly going to be compelled to set up a data base of all equines in the U.K. so as to comply with requirements of the EEC. Details of the horse and contact details of the owner will be recorded on the data base and it will be the owners responsibility to ensure that their details and that of their horses is kept up to date.
This time each and every equine will have to be Micro-Chip with a micro-chip which is manufactured to a European standard (to ensure that they can all be read by one scanner). This will be retrospective so even if a horse is already micro-chipped it will have to have a new type micro-chip implanted in it.
The new data base will be policed to ensure that the owners of equines comply.
 
actually Smogul - it is a compulsory requirement for them to be microchipped and passported by the age of 6 months or the dec of the yr they were born or if they do not have a passport and you wish to obtain one for an animal born before the 1st July 2009 - http://archive.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/farmanimal/movements/horses/horses_qa.htm. I think the cops in this case should have called a vet out before they got rid of the body of this animal - and i would have thought that the knackermen probably should carry a scanner with them as they are usually carting off animals which should have a passport so should probably have the ability to check for microchips too.
 
I agree that having a chip that can be read by a universal scanner would be good- and the requirement for all adult horses, as well as foals should be compulsory.

I'm not sure it should be made a law to check the microchips but it should be a guideline for identication at the point of sale or euthanasia along with the passport.

There may be a problem with migrating chips being difficult to locate though. Freeze marking is a much surer way to identify horses.
 
as horsies4coursies has pointed out it is now law to have a horse born after 2009 microchip along with a horse's passport.

I'm not really technical minded so i don't quite understand how a microchip can't be read by all scanners. but are not all microchips read by a vet? I mean has a vet ever turned round and said sorry can't verify the horse your buying to the passport because i can't scan the chip? think I'd be worried if they did.

I just think that if it were me, i would want my horse identified and scanned and me informed and not left thinking my horse has been stolen and never knowing.
 
The type of microchip used in horses seems to be easily read through the scanners vets have - some of the horses i have had have come from other parts of the UK and therefore from a different vets with a microchip and have been read fine with the vets scanner here where i am - i know the microchips for cats, dogs ferrets etc come from different companies and there is more issues with them being read but i think thats probably another discussion for another day.
 
horsies4coursies said:
actually Smogul - it is a compulsory requirement for them to be microchipped and passported by the age of 6 months or the dec of the yr they were born or if they do not have a passport and you wish to obtain one for an animal born before the 1st July 2009
Click to expand...

Thanks for that. As you have explained it, it is not compulsory. There will still be a lot of horses around without microchips. There are still a lot of oldies around who don't even have a passport.
 
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