In his letter, Ray Borg (March 20) commented about the price of microchipping to be introduced by the new regulations relating to the electronic identification of dogs.

While commending Mr Borg’s gesture to adopt three stray dogs, it is pertinent to note that under the present legislation dog owners are already obliged to pay a licence fee of €2.33 per annum to the police. Based on the premise that a dog’s life on average lasts about 10 years, a dog owner is at present required to pay €23.30 over the span of a decade. The fee coming into force with the new regulations establishes a one-time fee of €10 for neutered dogs and €20 for non-neutered dogs, which will replace the present system of paying an annual licence fee. This effectively means a dog owner will not incur any new additional costs as a result of the new regulations.

While striving to ensure dog owners are not burdened unnecessarily, we have introduced a system of microchipping which will allow a more foolproof system of identification and, thus, ensure it can be easily determined whether a dog is a stray or whether an animal has an owner. Should a dog be abandoned, the authorities will be in a position to easily identify the owner and to sanction the owner.

Should a dog escape, it will be possible to return the animal to its rightful owner as a result of the information contained in the microchip.

These regulations are another step intended to address the wellbeing of pets and the interests of their owners.