Proposals to microchip Britain’s eight million dogs

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.

This may be good news for postmen but civil libertarians worry that Britain’s sprawling surveillance state wants to track the nation’s estimated eight 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 data- grabbing by government who want to have as much information on us as it can possibly have,” said Dylan Sharpe, a campaigner with privacy rights group Big Brother Watch. Opposition lawmaker Nick Herbert said the proposal risked “penalising 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.

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. In 2009, London deputy mayor Kit Malthouse called for action on what he called “weapon dogs”. His opposition Conservative Party says hospital admissions and court cases relating to dangerous dogs have soared.

Home Office secretary Alan Johnson said micro- chipping would help trace the owners of dogs involved in attacks, while insurance would ensure that victims of dog attacks were properly compensated for any injuries.

His proposals were largely welcomed by animal welfare groups, including the RSPCA, which said it had long supported chipping – primarily as a means of reuniting lost pets with their owners.