Cyber attacks on the IT infrastructure of the Government of Montenegro in the summer of 2022 also affected the central registry of pets, so if someone finds a chipped dog, they cannot simply check the data from the chip by going to the first veterinary clinic.
The reason for this is that veterinarians now only see data on microchips that they performed, but not those performed by their colleagues from other clinics.
A citizen of Podgorica contacted the editors of "Vijesti", wanting to know whose dog was found on the street and had been microchipped. She said that in one veterinary clinic the chip was read and the chip number is known, but unfortunately, that veterinarian does not have information about the owner of the dog. That's why she visited other veterinary clinics - without success. She also said that she contacted the Directorate for Food Safety, Veterinary and Phytosanitary Affairs, which is responsible for the central register of animals, but she did not receive an answer from them about the owner either.
The Administration told "Vijesta" that they can help in the case if the dog was chipped before August 22, 2022, i.e. before the cyber attack.
"Cyber attacks that began on the servers of the Government of Montenegro on August 22 required, among other things, the shutdown of the servers of the Administration for Food Safety, Veterinary and Phytosanitary Affairs, which at that time were located in the premises of the Directorate for Payments of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management. In the meantime, in cooperation with the Ministry of Public Administration, a part of the connection to the UBHVFP was enabled, but not to the veterinary clinics. Therefore, veterinary clinics cannot update information about dogs and owners in the pet registry. However, by writing to the Administration of the owner of the dog or a responsible citizen who finds a dog on a public surface, it is possible to obtain information about the dog and the owner if the dog was microchipped before August 22, 2022," writes the response to "Vijesti".
As they added, until the consequences of the cyber attack are resolved and veterinary clinics are allowed to have access to and the ability to update the Pet Registry, this is the only way to verify information about the dog and the owner.
The obligation to microchip pets was introduced with the adoption of the 2018 Rulebook on the Method of Identification of Dogs and Cats.
The Animal Welfare Protection Act obliges the owner of a lost pet to report its disappearance to a shelter for abandoned animals. The same law provides that a person who finds an abandoned or lost animal (pet) is obliged to inform the shelter for abandoned animals.
According to the law, the obligation of the shelter is, among other things, to search for the owners of abandoned and lost pets.
The costs of accommodation in the shelter are paid by the animal keeper, if known or subsequently determined. One of the ways to determine the connection between the animal and the owner is precisely marking, i.e. chipping and reading that data.
In order to encourage owners to chip their pets, the UBHVFP started an organized campaign to identify and register dogs in September 2019, when along with chipping, vaccination against rabies was carried out at the same time.
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