Dog Licence & Microchip mandatory before Sep 1, 2007 or $5,000 fine.

August 15, 2007

Since the Straits Times reported that a "$5,000 fine" will be imposed instead of $500 if a dog is caught unlicensed, there is a big rush by Singapore's dog owners to license their dogs.

At one time, microchip stock ran out but now there is stock.

"If demand is greater than supply, the price should increase," my assistant said. "The price should be increased to $50.00".

"A big queue was present at a veterinary clinic when I was at the place for dog training," Mark said. "$15.00 only for microchipping a dog."



Owners do phone to get the cheapest rates for surgery and microchipping. After September 1, 2007, licences for intact male and female dogs are $70.00 per year instead of $14.00 for the former.

So, it is a mad rush to get the dogs sterilised before September 1, 2007.

The big problems are:

1. Certain female sterilised dogs do not have written proof of spay as they had been given as gifts or adopted. It is difficult for vets to certify that the female dog had indeed been spayed by some other vets. Without this proof, the licence fee will be $70.00 instead of much lower fees.

2. One Toa Payoh general practitioner asked me what to do. I don't have the answer. Maybe he could monitor the female dog for 6 months, taking pictures of the swelling of the private parts every week? Proper pictures with positioning fixed? Perhaps this may help to convince the A.V.A (Agri-Veterinary Authority). I refuse to do surgery when the dog has had been "possibly spayed" because it is "unnecessary surgery". It takes a long incision and 3 times longer to look for the "missing" womb.

3. Suddenly I received a phone call from an old friend to ask how much I charge for neutering a 13-year-old male Jack Russell.

But the poor Jack Russell is now an old man. I had seen him as a puppy and his boy owner is now a young adult studying to be a lawyer.

"What will your son think?" I asked the mother. "He will be studying overseas soon. If his Jack Russell dog dies under general anaesthesia for neutering, he will be most upset. The old dog not a good anaesthetic risk." Mum had not thought of that and did not pursue the matter.

So, there was no quotation for neutering and no income for the vet. The licence fee will be $70 instead of $14.

Assume the 13-year-old lives another 5 years.
Extra costs in licensing fees will be $36x5 = $180
Cost of neuter = $150.
Savings is $30

But this friend can afford the $70 per year licensing fee. She teaches me in a way that "a penny saved is a penny gained" in order to accumulate wealth.

In this case, a neuter fee gained is several pennies gained if no other vets in Singapore underprice my neuter fees!

4. As far as proof of microchipping is concerned, there are dog breeders who do their own microchipping. Proof of microchipping will be scanning. Vets normally give a receipt with microchipping numbers recorded. A.V.A needs proof of microchipping from the vet. There are probably cases of false "microchip" submissions for dog licences?

Mark told me that it is no longer possible to download the dog licence form from the website of A.V.A at www.ava.gov.sg when I asked him to download a few for the dog owners last week. I find this practice strange.

Another bureaucratic body, the Housing and Development Board does force owners to register online using Sing Pass and will not entertain queries in some procedures. It is more convenient to the bureaucrats and saves a lot of trees if the whole population does away with form-filling.