WICHITA, Kan. (KAKE) - The city of Wichita is looking at a recommendation made by the Animal Services Advisory Board to make it mandatory for owners to have their dogs and cats microchipped. 

In 2023 the animal services advisory board made a subcommittee to discuss changes that could help out the animal shelter. One of the recommendations the board made was making it mandatory for all dogs and cats to be microchipped. It says this would help get lost animals back to their owners.

Lt. Derek Purcell with the Wichita Police Department agrees. He told KAKE News this is the best thing to keep animals out of the already overflowing shelter.

"Right now I have 187 animals in the shelter and I have no cats with microchips and 12 dogs so that's roughly 6% that are microchipped," he said.

While KAKE News was there someone brought in a lost dog. The workers at the Wichita Animal Shelter scanned her for a microchip and she didn't have one.

 

"So what'll happen with her is she'll be here and we have to hold her for three business days but if she had a chip then we'd be taking her home right now," he said.

This is why the city of Wichita is looking at making it mandatory for people to get their pets chipped so people can get their fur baby back if they run away.

"Nobody expects their pet to go missing. That's why you get microchips. It's a preventative measure and it's something that can help exponentially when an animal gets lost," explained Jordan Bani-Younes who is the communications director for the Kansas Humane Society.

A microchip is a small metal piece that is inserted between an animals shoulder blades. It's registered to a code that is connected to your address and phone number. If a pet has an up to date chip then an owner can be found when it is scanned.

Purcell says this ordinance would help a lot. Not only would every pet have a chip but the chips would also work how they're supposed to as people would update their information yearly.

"In essence it helps us divert the intakes from the shelter. What should come from the shelter is just the lost or stray animals looking for their animals," he said.

Bani-Younes says he knows some people don't want to get their animal microchipped because they're worried their information will be available online. He says the chip only has enough memory to be registered to the code and any personal information is kept private. 

He also says it's about 15 dollars to have a chip installed and KHS holds free chipping events every once in awhile.

The city council is expected to discuss this sometime in the next month.