After a two year consultation process the government, here in the UK, has decided to introduce compulsory micro-chipping of all dogs and all puppies must receive this identification when going from the breeder to the new owner.

Of course, all responsible owners will dutifully and lovingly take their puppy to be identified in this way; if instructed. They will pay the fee and will also ensure that they take full responsibility for the welfare and behaviour of their dog for it lifetime (as they always have!). However, irresponsible owners will ignore this law anyway and will not be affected in the slightest. 
 
For laws to be obeyed there must be two very clear and obvious reasons for cooperation. One is that the individual actually benefits in some way from the law and the second is that the consequence of non- compliance is extremely undesirable. So to have a law that will cost people money really fails to address the first essential and everyone knows that to actually police this law for non-compliance would be impossible, making that too a nonsense, as irresponsible owners will realise there is little chance of being caught breaking the law.

For so many people the way that they view and treat dogs is based on their own learning, experience and influence from their peer group, as with every walk of life. So if a person sees a certain type of dog as being 'friendly' and readily seeks to stroke every dog that fits their idea of this, then they are inadvertently risking being bitten by a dog that they know nothing about and of course the dog will be the ultimate victim, as it will be destroyed and labelled as 'vicious'.

When a person considers the ownership of a particular type of dog, as being macho, or assisting them in their ability to intimidate others and that dog bites another person, (at the instigation of the owner) then again it will be the dog that is destroyed.

It will always be education, rather than enforcement that will prove the most effective way of ensuring that an individual will not only willingly comply with socially acceptable rules but help to educate others along the way to do the same, especially if the monies raised by the micro-chip process are used for an educational programme.  This way, dog owners would be more than happy to comply and millions of pounds would be saved from the hard pressed taxpayers.

A programme that must start with the responsibility of all dog owners to ensure that their dogs are really a joy to everyone and not like the lady who was walking past me the other day and allowed her dog to race at me jump up at my legs three times, before assuring me that 'she's just being friendly'. How lucky I was that I was not on my way out, as I would never choose to leave home in wet trousers, covered in mud smears.  Sorry lady I really didn't appreciate this, especially as I had to wash my clothes three times to remove the staining. 

Jan Fennell
25th April 2012