One of the most critical steps in ensuring animal welfare is microchipping.
This small, often overlooked act holds enormous benefits for animals, their owners, and animal welfare organisations alike. Here, we explore why microchipping is so essential to our work and to the wellbeing of animals everywhere.
Why microchipping matters
Microchipping involves inserting a small electronic chip, about the size of a grain of rice, just beneath an animal’s skin, usually between the shoulder blades. Each chip has a unique identification number that can be read with a scanner, allowing lost or stray animals to be traced back to their registered owner. This process is simple, safe, and inexpensive, yet it can have life-changing implications.
For us, microchipping is an invaluable tool that helps us provide comprehensive care, rehabilitation, and support for Greece’s stray cats and dogs.
The microchipping of owned companion animals is required by law in Greece as is the microchipping of unowned community cats and dogs by local municipalities.
Where we are implementing cat and dog population management programmes we’re encouraging our partners to microchip the aims at the point of sterilization and registering their ownership to the municipality in which the animals live.
Here’s why:
1. Reuniting lost pets with their families
- Every year, thousands of pets go missing due to various circumstances – whether they have simply wandered off, been involved in an accident or end up in shelter by mistake. When animals are microchipped, shelters and veterinarians can quickly identify their families and reunite them, reducing stress for both animals and their owners.
- For families in Greece, especially those with outdoor cats or free-roaming dogs, microchipping offers peace of mind. Knowing that a lost pet can be quickly traced and returned home thanks to a microchip helps minimize the heartbreak of separation.
2. Supporting animal welfare programmes
- Microchipping provides vital data that we use to understand stray and companion animal demographics. For example, during our recent outreach in Taxiarchis, where we implemented a comprehensive neutering and vaccination programme, microchipping helps us keep track of the animals we’ve treated, ensuring they receive necessary follow-up care and are counted in our population assessments.
- This data is instrumental in shaping policies and creating effective programmes that improve animal welfare across Greece.
3. Preventing animal cruelty and abuse
- Sadly, cases of animal abandonment, mistreatment, and neglect remain a significant challenge in many communities. Microchipping allows organisations to track incidents and work with authorities to hold individuals accountable for abusive practices. It is a small but powerful step in the fight against animal cruelty.
Our commitment to microchipping
Through partnerships with local municipalities, veterinary practices, and other welfare organisations, we are committed to increasing the rate of microchipping for stray and companion animals alike. By supporting the microchipping of cats, dogs, and even working animals, we help build a future where every animal has a greater chance of living a safe, healthy, and happy life.
Every animal that comes into our care is microchipped as part of our standard protocol. This is not only a way to ensure they can be traced but also part of our long-term goal to reduce stray populations by tracking sterilized animals and preventing unplanned births.
Get involved
Microchipping is a simple act with a profound impact. We encourage all pet owners to microchip their animals and keep their contact information updated in local registries. For stray animals, every donation we receive goes towards life-saving procedures, including microchipping, to ensure they have a secure future.
By supporting microchipping, you’re giving stray and companion animals alike a better chance at a loving, permanent home.
Let’s continue working together to make Greece a safer, kinder place for all animals.
