Ms Brenda Fitzpatrick:

The point is that the Deputy is not alone. Many people have not microchipped their dogs, even though it is incredibly important to enable the dog to be returned if it ends up loose, in a dog pound or, God forbid, stolen. It is the only way at the moment to have that traceability for a dog. There is an issue under the Control of Dogs Act as well, that one of the definitions of ownership of a dog is who the dog resides with. Even though the Deputy has not microchipped his dogs, it would be recognised that he is the owner because his dogs reside with him. However, that also brings forward another problem when dogs are stolen, because if a dog that has not been microchipped is stolen, the owner might know that a person at the other end of the town has the dog but that dog has been residing with that person. Under the Control of Dogs Act it is a nebulous area.

That issue is linked to this and it has to be straightened out and clarified. Many rescues offer services to individuals to have their dogs microchipped for free or at discounted prices and so on. As Ms O'Connor pointed out, unfortunately, in the criminal game of stealing dogs, people are highly professional and cutting out the microchip is absolutely commonplace.