After considerable acrimony, Wellington Council’s environment committee has voted to make cat microchipping compulsory.
The amendments to the current animal bylaw are:
- all domestic cats over the age of 12 weeks must be microchipped and registered with NZCAR (New Zealand Companion Animal Register) or other Council approved microchip register
- the Council should use non-regulatroy options to support the compulsory microchipping of cats, subject to funding being designated in the 2017/2018 Annual Plan
As reported by stuff.co.nz:
The vote came after councillors agreed in May to toughen up the proposed animal bylaw, with measures including compulsory microchipping, limiting the number of cats people could own, and putting a curfew on when cats could roam free.
On Friday environment committee chairwoman Iona Pannett said the curfew idea was scrapped after public feedback.
However, she moved the amendment making microchipping compulsory.
Microchipping is a bit like the proverbial ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. In an ideal world, cats would not be roaming off their owners’ property at all. But as long as they do, having a way to identify them so they can be returned to their homes is just common sense.