Colorado bill would require microchips for cats
Denver -- Colorado lawmakers are considering a bill that would force cat owners to microchip or tag their pets.
Denver
-- Colorado lawmakers are considering a bill that would force cat owners to microchip or tag their pets.
The House bill would require cats older than 4 months to wear some kind of identification, such as a durable tag on a properly fitting collar or a surgically implanted microchip registered with a national database. Owners of cats found without identification could face fines in cities with populations above 100,000. Rural communities would be exempt.
The bill's goal is to collar the number of cats entering Colorado animal shelters each year - now estimated at 70,000 - thereby decreasing euthanasia rates.
In tandem with the proposed legislation, the Metro Denver Shelter Alliance and the Denver Area Veterinary Medical Society created a program dubbed "Chip Your Cat." Since September, the groups have implanted microchips in 150,000 cats in six counties.
