A badly integrated reflex? Only half of the 17 million domestic cats In France would be identified – by an electronic chip or by a tattoo – while this marking is compulsory, as for dogs and even for pets.
“We still have an identification rate which is really too low” for cats “while it is a regulatory obligation”, deplored Thursday during a press conference Cécile Gardino, veterinarian and responsible for the analysis of data for the company Ingenium Animalis, which manages the national file I-CAD (identification of domestic carnivores), under delegation from the Ministry of Agriculture.
As of December 31, 2024, 9.5 million dogs, 8.6 million cats and 17,636 ferrets were identified in this register and considered to be still living age. Holding an unidentified dog or cat born after January 1, 2012 can be punished with a fine of 750 euros.
“90 % of dogs are identified in France”
“We are around 50 % of cats identified, so the margins of progression are still important”. As a comparison, “we consider that 90 % of dogs are identified in France,” she said.
The I -CAD file – presented as the largest database on this theme on a European scale – makes it possible to identify the general population of cats, dogs and ferrets in France, to ensure health surveillance or to combat trafficking, flights and l’abandon.
And this traceability, essential to take out insurance or to travel abroad with your animalalso allows “people who have lost their animal to find it more easily,” said Cécile Gardino. “It is really essential that cat identification” is well done, because “76 % of the declared animals are cats are cats,” she insisted.
To raise awareness among owners, breeders and veterinarians in the insufficiency of the identification of domestic cats, this theme will be at the heart of the seventh edition of the “week of identification”, organized by the I-CAD from June 16 to 22.
The identification of domestic animals makes it possible to assign them a unique number, via the implantation under the skin of an electronic chip or more rarely by a tattoo. This number is saved in the I-CAD file with the name and address of their owner.
