MEDIA RELEASE

You may have recently seen in the media that one of Australia’s main microchip registries, Homesafe, has recently stopped operations, meaning pets registered with them may become untraceable.

For pets outside of Victoria, owners can re-register their animals with an alternative provider. Victorian legislation, however, prevents pet owners from registering their animals with more than one microchip registry.

We are in contact with Animal Welfare Victoria while this issue is being resolved and understand they are currently working through a process for all Victorian pet registrations on the Homesafe database to be transferred to an alternative provider.

We ceased using Homesafe microchips for our veterinary service clients as soon as we were aware of the situation.

While Animal Welfare Victoria work through this process, we strongly recommend all owners of pets currently registered with Homesafe to make sure your pets are also registered with your local councils. Council registration is a legal requirement and takes precedence as proof of ownership over microchip registration.

Shelters receiving surrendered pets already on the Homesafe registry are currently not able to re-register them, but this does not prevent animals from being rehomed.

Lort Smith rehomes around 500 surrendered dogs and cats each year, so the ongoing impact on our shelter services in terms of surrendered pets with existing Homesafe chips is relatively small. However, we are advising adopters to make sure they register their animal with their local councils. Once resolved, it is expected that new adopters will be able to register their pet with an alternative registry provider.

If pet owners are unsure where their pet is currently registered, they can look up their pets’ microchip on the petaddress.com.au website.

MEDIA INTERVIEWS & CONTACT

Suzana Talevski: Head of Media and Digital Content, Lort Smith
Mobile: 0403 047 945
Email: [email protected]