MILLIONS of dog owners in the country will have to pay for their pets to be fitted with a microchip under government proposals announced yesterday.

The Government believes that if every puppy is fitted with a device that has details of who they belong to, it will make it easier to find and take the owners of violent dogs to court.

The information would be stored on computers that can be accessed by police and the RSPCA. However, some people believe more could be done to help the problem.

Alison Waine, Swindon Council’s animal officer, said: “Following the initial reading of the consultation, I am a bit disappointed that some of the recommendations that have been made by organisations such as the RSPCA, Dog Wardens and the police haven’t been adopted.

“At the same time, a lot of people have been calling for some form of compulsory microchipping and this will certainly assist us in getting stray dogs back home, or holding people responsible so we can reduce the number of dumped dogs, which costs us an awful lot of money.

“At this stage it is just a consultation and we will putting our responses to it and we encourage the public to make sure they also respond.

“We think more should be done but, at the same time, will try to work with the proposals that we have – our main role is to encourage responsible dog ownership.”

Microchipping is already compulsory in Northern Ireland and a consultation will be launched later this year in Wales.

There are no plans for Scotland to do the same.

But the RSPCA believes the Government has wasted its best opportunity to tackle irresponsible dog ownership in more than 20 years.

RSPCA chief executive Gavin Grant said: “Britain’s dogs deserve better. All owners need to be accountable to their dogs, with the irresponsible deterred and the abusive prosecuted. These proposals need to go a lot further to achieve that.

“It has been 21 years since the disastrous Dangerous Dogs Act was introduced. After years of watching the problem of irresponsible dog ownership spiral, this was the perfect chance for the Government to make huge strides forward for dog welfare.

“Instead they have taken only the smallest steps and merely tinkered with a piece legislation that many people widely acknowledge is one of the biggest failures of modern politics.”

The news comes after the Adver revealed that more than 100 Royal Mail workers in the town suffered dog bites in the past three years as a result of owners failing to control their animals.

South Swindon MP Robert Buckland said: “The figures relating to attacks on postal workers in Swindon are alarming.

“A big problem is obtaining evidence about dog identity and ownership, which is why I welcome Government proposals to take this action on microchipping.”