Effective in July of 2011, you will need to have your pet(s) microchipped – even if you already have them tattooed with the papers to match. This will be Europe’s new standard for any pet traveling by air into or out of Europe.
A microchip is no bigger than a grain of rice, and the vet implant these chips to cats and dogs but also into all kinds of pets – even reptiles and birds can get microchipped. The chip uses radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and uses radio waves as a medium to transmit unique information of your pet like – identifying number that is accessible from a database which shows the pets name, owners name and contact information. So if your pet got lost, he can be scanned for a microchip and be returned to you.
In Europe about one quarter of European pets have been chipped, in comparison to the U.S. with only 5 percent, roughly 130 million dogs and cats.