As any good charity organisation will tell you, identification of a cat by microchip provides invaluable protection.
Here are a few reasons why we, at Chats du Quercy, identify all cats before they are adopted and verify if a cat has an identification BEFORE we accept it into the Rescue Centre.
Legal Obligations: The law in France states that a cat must be identified-
- Before it is sold or given
- For LOF(Livre des Origins Français) registration
- For competition purposes
- For placing an advert in order to find the cat a home/new owner
- For travelling outside of France in the EU
- In Jan uary 2012, the law changes to make it a legal obligation for all cats over seven months and born after January 1 2012, to be identified.
There are also moral obligations for the protection of the cat
As a gesture of respect and responsibility you should give your cat an identity
Normally, a cat lives within its territory, but this could include a wide area that overlaps and mixes with other cat populations. Cats, seen roaming freely can be the object of organised capture programmes (see Article L211-23 below), for neutering and, sometimes, euthanasia. Identification allows for owners of stray cats to be found.
They can also be wrongly picked up and presumed lost or abandonned and then rehomed by a thrid party without your knowledge!
Identification is invaluable for medical purposes. An identified cat will most likelyfollow regular health checks.