Responsible cat ownership: Microchipping

with Wellington City Council Animal Liaison Officer Alanah Day

Almost half of all households in Aotearoa own at least one domestic cat, and 20% own two or more. Being a responsible cat owner is vital to keeping your cat safe and happy and also to helping keep native wildlife safe. Wellington City Council Animal Liaison Officer Alanah Day shares some information about one way that you can be a responsible cat owner: microchipping.

I’m sure many of us have experienced the anticipation and excitement of getting a new feline family member. I vividly remember the drive to the veterinary clinic to pick up my new cat, Keira, and how excited I was—and that was nine years ago! However, alongside the excitement of being a cat owner came a set of responsibilities.  

Owning a cat is a responsibility for the cat’s lifetime. Being a responsible cat owner is about protecting and enjoying your pet and the wildlife of Aotearoa at the same time. One way to do this is to ensure that your cat is microchipped and that the microchip is registered on the New Zealand Companion Animal Register (NZCAR). Microchipping involves inserting a small chip (about the size of a grain of rice) under the skin of your cat. Each chip has a unique number that is registered to the NZCAR database with the cat owner’s details.  

In 2016, Wellington City Council acknowledged the importance of microchipping by making it compulsory for all Wellington city residents to microchip their cats and register them on the NZCAR database. Microchipping provides permanent identification and makes it easy for vets, animal shelters, and councils to identify cats if they become lost or separated. For example, over 80% of microchipped cats were reunited with their owners in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake as opposed to only 15% of non-microchipped cats. 

At Wellington City Council, we also run a stray cat management program which aims to control stray cat colonies around Pōneke. This is to reduce nuisance behaviour, reduce the risk of disease transmission and reduce the negative impacts of cats on biodiversity. One of the tools we use to identify a stray cat from an owned cat in this program is to check for a microchip using a scanner.   

Microchips also help you be a responsible cat owner in other ways. If your cat is allowed to roam outdoors, an action you can take is to introduce a cat curfew. Biodiversity experts recommend keeping cats inside between the hours of 8pm to 8am. This curfew reduces the impact that cats have on Aotearoa’s native nocturnal wildlife. You can even get microchip-activated cat doors that allow you to set curfews on them ensuring that when your cat comes in for the night, it stays in.  

The importance and benefits of microchipping our cats cannot be stressed enough. If you live in Wellington City and your cat is not microchipped, please email catmanagement@wcc.govt.nz as we offer a subsidized microchipping service. If your cat is currently microchipped, make sure you log on to the NZCAR website and check that your contact details are up to date.