For many years, experts have been demanding that politicians make identification and registration (K&R) compulsory for dogs and cats so that transparency and clarity can finally be created about the origin and ownership of an animal. This would result in significant improvements in the areas of animal health, animal welfare, legal certainty and enforcement, consumer protection, public health and economy. For example, found animals could be assigned to their owners more quickly and thus return to their familiar surroundings more quickly. Municipalities and animal shelters that take in and care for found animals would be permanently relieved.
The illegal puppy trade could also be curbed considerably, since the responsible authorities could trace the origin of the animals and identify unscrupulous puppy traders more easily. Criminals sell the much too young and mostly sick dogs online – they use both classified ad portals and social media on which they can act anonymously to disguise their unscrupulous business.
therefore has one model solution was developed that enables full traceability of online trade to help end the thriving business of the illegal puppy trade.
In contrast to almost all other EU member states, there is still no uniform labeling and registration obligation (K&R) in Germany. Every dog and, in the long term, every cat should be given a microchip by veterinarians and (must) be registered in a database. The introduction of K&R for dogs was announced in the federal government’s coalition agreement at the end of 2021, but the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture has not yet implemented this.
As part ofNetwork Identification and Registration (K&R) advocates the introduction of such an obligation. In 2019, the animal welfare organization, together with the K&R network, organized a conference with more than a hundred participants from all over Europe.
At this specialist conference, experts from the network explained the great relevance of a nationwide labeling and registration obligation for pets: From animal welfare and animal health to public health and consumer protection to economic efficiency and legal certainty, there would be significant improvements in all areas , K&R should be introduced as mandatory.