Campaign raises awareness of rescue backup microchips

UK vets are unwittingly euthanising healthy dogs that carry a guaranteed “home for life” microchip, campaigners have claimed.

The dogs – from rescue backgrounds – carry a dual registration chip containing details of the organisation that fostered the animal. The implant guarantees the rescue organisation will readily take back the dog if a vet contacts it.

However, due to a combination of factors – including claims some vets fail to scan before euthanising, incompatibility of different chip-reading devices, and a widespread ignorance among vets of the existence of the potentially life‑saving rescue backup (RBU) chips – many dogs that should be safe are unnecessarily euthanised.

Campaigners Sue Williams and Dawn Ashley have now launched an online “Tuk’s Law” Government petition and engaged veterinary authorities.

Tuk, a mioritic shepherd dog, was rescued from the streets of Romania as a five‑week‑old puppy and rehomed in the UK. The dog was subsequently advertised on Gumtree – even though the original owners had signed a contract not to pass it on, but return it to the rescue centre if the adoption failed.

Mrs Williams said – at 18 months old and healthy, and implanted with an RBU chip – Tuk was euthanised by a vet who failed to scan it. Had the chip been checked, she said veterinary personnel would have discovered the person who requested euthanasia was not the registered keeper, and that the dog had an RBU chip.

Petition

The petition, on the UK Government and Parliament site, calls for vets to scan dogs prior to euthanasia for RBU details and to confirm the person requesting the animal be euthanised is authorised to do so.

At the time of going to press, the petition had more than 14,000 signatures – guaranteeing a Government response.

• Read the full story in the 17 March issue of Veterinary Times.