BC Cat Microchip Rules 2026: Vancouver, Surrey & Metro Vancouver ID/Fines Guide

Province-wide B.C. rule: microchipping is recommended, not universally mandated

The BC SPCA recommends that cats, dogs and rabbits have a registered microchip and has publicly advocated for a province-wide requirement. But its current materials still describe province-wide mandatory microchipping as a policy goal rather than existing B.C. law.

That makes the legal question local: does your municipality require identification, permanent identification, registration, licensing or some combination? Those terms are not interchangeable.

Metro Vancouver and B.C. city-by-city snapshot

Municipal bylaws and ticket schedules change. For legal compliance, verify the current municipal bylaw before relying on a fine or enforcement number.

Surrey: identification is mandatory, microchipping is not the only way to comply

Surrey's Cat Spay/Neuter Regulation Bylaw requires an owner of a cat actually or apparently over six months old to maintain identification on the cat. The bylaw defines identification to include a collar/tag with current owner contact information, a traceable tattoo and a traceable microchip. Surrey's current responsible-pet page simplifies that rule as “ID (tag, tattoo or microchip).”

The same bylaw regulates sterilization and at-large behaviour. Current Surrey shelter guidance also makes an important practical distinction: dogs are required to be licensed; the cat-reclaim page does not impose a comparable cat-licence requirement.

Current Surrey Animal Resource Centre fees for an impounded cat are separate from an identification offence: the City presently lists $18 for a spayed/neutered cat and $67 for an unaltered cat, plus applicable boarding and medical charges.

Richmond: sufficient ID is required, but the bylaw expressly gives alternatives

Richmond Animal Control Bylaw 7932 requires every owner to ensure a cat bears sufficient identification to let a finder contact the owner. The identification “may take the form of, but is not limited to,” a collar and tag, tattoo or microchip implant.

Richmond also regulates sterilization: cats over six months are generally required to be spayed/neutered unless the owner has a valid cat breeding permit, and unsterilized cats may not run at large.

Coquitlam: the Cat ID Registration Program is useful, but it is not universal licensing

Coquitlam's Animal Care and Control Bylaw says an owner may register a cat by submitting the City form and ensuring the cat has permanent identification. The City's current Cat ID Registration Program asks owners with a tattooed or microchipped cat to register that ID with the shelter database.

The bylaw also says an altered cat bearing permanent identification can be at large under a specific exception. That creates a meaningful benefit to permanent ID, but it is not the same as requiring every indoor cat to have a microchip.

New Westminster: permanent ID really is mandatory

New Westminster is materially different from several neighbouring cities. Its current Animal Care and Control guidance says all cats must have permanent traceable identification. The City explicitly lists a tattoo or microchip as acceptable permanent ID.

The current municipal ticket schedule lists a $500 penalty for a cat without permanent identification. That is the type of fine that can legitimately appear in a municipality-by-municipality guide—provided it is labelled correctly. It is a permanent-ID offence, not “microchip only.”

Vancouver: the word “microchip” appears in the bylaw, but that does not create a cat mandate

Vancouver's current Animal Control By-law defines “permanent identification” as a microchip with current owner contact information. But the operative provision reviewed that can require permanent identification is part of the conditions that may be imposed on an aggressive dog.

The licensing section is likewise dog-specific. The current bylaw therefore should not be summarized as “Vancouver requires cats to be microchipped” or “Vancouver requires cat licences.”

Burnaby, Victoria and District of North Vancouver: remove the unsupported fine claims

Burnaby's current searchable bylaws include cat-related provisions, but the public material reviewed for this update did not substantiate a general cat-microchip offence or the old $150–$200 unmicrochipped-cat fine.

Victoria's current bylaw directory points to Animal Responsibility Bylaw 11-044. The consolidated text reviewed contains cat-control and impound provisions but no “microchip” term; it lists a cat impound fee rather than an unmicrochipped-cat penalty.

The District of North Vancouver's current Dog Tax and Regulation Bylaw includes some provisions that apply to animals generally, but the reviewed bylaw contains no “permanent identification” provision and no general cat-microchip requirement. The old North Vancouver District microchip fine should therefore be removed rather than repeated.

BC Pet Registry vs 24PetWatch: there is no legally mandated “primary database”

The old article said every Metro Vancouver animal service searches 24PetWatch as the “primary” registry and that owners should separately register in the “BC SPCA database.” That framing is incorrect.

BC Pet Registry is the BC SPCA's registry. It is a province-wide permanent-ID database owned and operated by the BC SPCA. It can register microchips, tattoos and licence numbers, and participating veterinary clinics, animal-control agencies and shelters can use it to trace a found pet.

24PetWatch is a separate commercial microchip/registry provider. It may be the registry associated with a particular chip, but B.C. law does not require every cat to be registered with 24PetWatch.

BC Pet Registry: current registration and microchip cost snapshot

BC Pet Registry currently lists lifetime registration at $45. Its public FAQ says microchipping at a veterinary clinic or hospital commonly costs about $60–$125, although actual clinic pricing varies.

All cats and kittens adopted through BC SPCA currently leave with a microchip and lifetime BC Pet Registry registration included in the adoption package.

If your cat already has a chip from another company, BC Pet Registry says it can register existing microchip brands. Its records are also traceable through the AAHA Universal Pet Microchip Lookup partnership.

What microchip standard should a B.C. cat have?

The Canadian Veterinary Medical Association recommends RFID products that have been reviewed by the National Companion Animal Coalition and comply with ISO 11784 and ISO 11785. That is a better technical standard than telling owners that “B.C. law requires ISO 134.2 kHz.”

CVMA also recommends that microchipped animals be scanned annually to confirm the device still functions and to locate it if it has migrated.

What happens when a B.C. shelter finds a microchip?

BC SPCA advises that a found animal can be taken to a veterinary clinic, animal-control agency or BC SPCA animal centre for a free microchip scan. The number is then used to identify the associated registry or owner record.

Surrey's shelter guidance likewise tells finders to have a pet scanned and says current microchip/tattoo information can be strong proof of ownership when reclaiming an animal.

A microchip does not guarantee instant return. The chip can be unregistered, the phone number can be stale, or the record may still name a prior guardian. That is why ownership transfer and contact updates matter as much as implantation.

Moving soon? Patify has a separate microchip-after-moving checklist. For a useful comparison with another Canadian province, see the Ontario cat microchip rules guide.

H5N1: microchips can identify a lost cat, but there is no special H5N1 microchip rule

The old article claimed that an unchipped cat creates a CFIA “10-day contact tracing” gap and that Metro Vancouver municipalities were citing H5N1 as a reason for microchip enforcement. The official B.C. and CFIA HPAI guidance reviewed does not support that claim.

B.C.'s HPAI companion-animal guidance says suspected infection is reportable to CFIA and the B.C. Chief Veterinarian. If HPAI is suspected, owners should contact a veterinarian and tell the clinic before arrival; testing can be coordinated through the veterinary team and animal-health authorities.

A registered microchip may help identify the guardian of a lost sick cat. But the official reporting pathway is based on suspected disease, veterinary evaluation and animal-health authorities—not a special microchip notification statute.

B.C. cat microchip compliance checklist

Frequently asked questions

Bottom line

The B.C. microchip story is not “some cities require chips and fine everyone else.” It is a patchwork of identification rules. Surrey and Richmond require cat identification but accept alternatives to a microchip; Coquitlam offers registration for permanently identified cats; New Westminster requires permanent ID; and several other municipalities reviewed do not impose a general cat-microchip mandate.

For long-term compliance and recovery, the strongest strategy is simple: check the local bylaw, choose durable ISO-compliant permanent ID, register it correctly, keep the contact record current, and separate municipal fines from ordinary shelter fees.