Animal owners who want to sell or give away pets from July 1 will have to produce the animal's microchip number on any advertising.
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The new rule is one of several that will come into play from the start of the month following amendments to the Companion Animals Act and Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.
Canobolas Family Pet Hospital veterinarian Lisa Brisbane said the advertising rule would apply to any advertising.
"Even sites like Gumtree, people give away animals on Gumtree, even if you put a little post up outside IGA and things like that has to have the microchip number listed on it," Dr Brisbane said.
Hopefully we can reduce the number of puppies and kittens that end up in welfare shelters, that don't have homes.
- Dr Lisa Brisbane
She said people would be able to then type the microchip number into the NSW Pet Registry data base and see if it was a cat or a dog, its gender, a description of the animal, whether it's been desexed and its location.
"The reason they've done it is to try and ID people who are producing animals that are ending up in animal welfare situations and [shelters]," Dr Brisbane said.
"The attempt is to police that so it should be a good thing, it should reduce the number of people just letting their pet have a lot of puppies or kittens that they don't have a plan for.
"Hopefully we can reduce the number of puppies and kittens that end up in welfare shelters, that don't have homes."
Even sites like Gumtree, people give away animals on Gumtree, even if you put a little post up outside IGA and things like that has to have the microchip number listed on it.
- Dr Lisa Brisbane
She said the clinic currently has 20 kittens but in the last 12 months there have been 150 kittens dumped at the vet hospital and that was in addition to those that go to other welfare agencies such as a RSPCA or Blossoms Rescue.
From July 1 it would also be compulsory for vets to tattoo the ears of female dogs and cats when they are desexed, which Dr Brisbane has been doing for 20 years, to make it easier to identify if they had been desexed.
Dr Brisbane said scars weren't an ideal indicator because they could be from a different abdominal surgery so without the tattoos the only way to check was through more surgery.
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- READ ALSO: Canobolas Family Pet Hospital offer cheap chips
Also from July 1 the NSW Pet Register would allow people to find out whether an annual permit was needed to keep an animal, there would be annual permits for cats that were not desexed by four months of age, which must be obtained by six months of age.
There would be new and higher offences and penalties for not registering pets, and n ew regulations for definitions relating to declaring a dog as menacing, and specifying 'reasonable precautions' to to prevent a dog from escaping its property.
Annual permits for dangerous and restricted dogs would be introduced but hunting dogs would only require an annual permit if categorised as dangerous or restricted.
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