Bangkok pooches to get microchip implants

Sep 25, 2007, 2:40 GMT

Bangkok - In an effort to curb Bangkok's huge stray dog population, city authorities have ordered pet owners to register their pooches and get them a microchip implants or face a 5,000 baht (147 dollar) fine in the future, media reports said Tuesday.

The Bangkok Metropolitan Authority (BMA) will kick the registration campaign off Saturday by offering pet owners free microchip implants which will include data on the dog's owner, home address, age and breed, said the Bangkok Post.

After July 4, 2008, any dogs found in the capital without registration and microchips will be sent to a kennel in nearby Uthai Thani province, 190 kilometres north of Bangkok, and owners will need to pay a fine of 5,000 baht to get their pet back.

The registration and microchip push is part of the BMA's campaign to ease the metropolis' growing stray dog problem.

It is estimated that the city is home to 823,000 dogs, of which more than 100,000 are strays. Stray dogs pose a problem nationwide in Thailand, a predominantly Buddhist country where the public is opposed to animal exterminations but owners often shirk their responsibilities in taking care of their pets.

Consequently, the kingdom suffers one of the highest rates of rabies fatalities in the world, with between 200 to 300 human rabies deaths reported annually, 95 per cent of them due to dog bites.