Attention all pet owners.
The microchip company HomeSafe ID, which is used by many Toowoomba region residents as well as the RSPCA Queensland, has recently gone into receivership and their database will soon be lost.
Toowoomba Regional Council’s Cr Bill Cahill, portfolio and spokesperson for Environmental and Regulatory Services said “the challenge was if owners don’t update their microchip registry and their pet goes missing, it will make it difficult for council to reunite pets with their owners.”
“Microchips which continue to be registered with HomeSafe ID will no longer provide any ownership information when scanned in the future,” Cr Cahill said. “If members of the community drop off a lost dog or cat to our Animal Management Centre, then we will have to rely solely on the owner of the pet to come in and identify their lost animal. This will significantly delay the entire reuniting process.”
“This is a serious issue which will likely affect hundreds of Toowoomba Region residents,” he said.
Cr Cahill would like to remind residents that there is still time for affected pet owners to responsibly change their registration to another service provider.
“There are several registries which residents can use to change over their microchip details, including Central Animal Records, Australasian Animal Registry, Petsafe and Global Micro Animal Registry,” Cr Cahill said.
If pet owners are unsure which microchip provider they use, they can visit: petaddress.com.au/ to find out.
If owners are unsure of their pet/s microchip number, they can consult their regular veterinarian clinic.
Alternatively, for dogs only, microchip numbers will be listed as part of the TRC pet registration details.
Most registry companies will charge a small fee to register a microchip, please contact the service directly to find out more information.
It is a legal requirement under the Animal Management (Cats and Dogs) Act 2008 for owners to microchip their pets before they reach 12 weeks of age.
Failure to meet this requirement under the ‘Act’ may result in fines being imposed.
