Microchips must for pet dogs in Britain?

Microchips must for pet dogs in Britain?

London: British dog owners may be forced to microchip their pets and take out insurance, part of a proposed crackdown on the country’s dangerous canines.
Postmen are delighted, but civil libertarians grumble that Britain’s sprawling surveillance state now wants to track the nation’s estimated 8 million dogs. Others complain that the insurance plan would impose a financial penalty on innocent pet owners — while criminals who own violent animals will simply shirk the law.

“This is yet more surveillance and continuous datagrabbing by government who want to have as much information on us as it can possibly have,’’ said Dylan Sharpe, a campaigner with rights group Big Brother Watch. Opposition lawmaker Nick Herbert said the proposal risked “penalizing millions of law-abiding dog owners with the blunt instrument of a dog tax.’’

The government’s proposals are aimed at tackling the growing problem of aggressive canines being used to harass, attack and even kill. In a country where guns are tightly controlled and even carrying a kitchen knife can result in a prison sentence, animal rights experts and politicians say street thugs have turned to dangerous-looking dogs to cow their victims.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said the number of complaints about dog fights had soared 10-fold between 2004 and 2008, the last year for which figures were available. In 2009, London Deputy Mayor Kit Malthouse called for action on what he called “weapon dogs.’’ AP