My step-daughter is a qualified vet nurse, very good at her job and has a passion for the welfare of animals. She just gets outraged at the stupidity of bureaucracy!
Case 1: Our local council requires all dogs to be registered from the age of three months. Like most councils they charge only a nominal fee for registration if you have the animal desexed. The fee is otherwise much larger. But get this, according to vets, they will only usually desex a dog of at least six months of age. So, can you register your three month old pup at the lower rate on the basis that you will duly have it desexed at six months? Not with our council. Pay the full rate and there is no pro-rata refund even if you have the operation done. So, don’t register the animal until it is six months old and desexed. Hmm, that risks a fine for not registering the dog or even losing the dog for good should it escape and cannot be identified to be returned to you. Answer, council raise your dog registration age to six months!
Case 2: A lost animal is often handed in to the nearest vet. The vet checks for an identifying chip in order to reunite the animal with its owner. Failing that and if the animal has lost its collar, often any other identifying tags have also gone missing. It makes a great case for micro chipping the family pet.
So, micro chipping must make the council dog catcher’s job much easier. After all limited pound space, a policy of only keeping most animals for a week, the council would be delighted to be able to identify an animal and return it to its owner. And it collects on the pound fees faster too!
My step-daughter regularly checks the council pound web site and that of the other animal shelters just in case she finds a client’s animal that she knows to be missing. And that happened this week! The dog had been missing nearly a week. She phoned the council to ask whether the animal had been claimed and perhaps the web site had not been updated. Nup. The dog was still in the pound. “The council has no obligation to scan for microchips”, was the stern reply! Another beloved family pet nearly bit the dust. No thanks to our local council and all thanks to a diligent vet nurse.
Tom On Tuesday 