Registration

All cats and dogs, other than exempt cats and dogs, must be registered by half-dozen months of historic period. The registration fee is a in one case-only payment, which covers the cat or dog for its lifetime in NSW, regardless of any changes in ownership.

You are encouraged to have your cat or dog desexed before registering information technology. Having your cat or dog desexed prior to registration helps to reduce straying, fighting and aggression and antisocial behaviour, such as spraying to mark territory. It also helps to reduce the number of unwanted pets born each year.

Discounted registration fees use to desexed dogs.

Annual permits are now required for owners of not-desexed cats, restricted canis familiaris breeds, and dogs declared to be dangerous. Please refer to the Almanac Permits section for more than information.

Registration fees are used by councils for providing animal direction related services to the community. These may include ranger services, pound facilities, dog turn down bins, educational and other companion fauna-related activities.

If you neglect to register your cat or dog when required to do then y'all may be issued with a fixed penalty find of $330, or a court may honor a maximum penalization of up to $5500 or up to $6,500 if your canis familiaris is a restricted dog or a declared dangerous or menacing dog.

Key Resources

  • Pet Registration – Fact Sheet – PDF
  • NSW Pet Registry Registration Fee Refund Policy – Oct 2017 – PDF

Forms

  • Modify of Owner – Details – C3A Course – PDF
  • Modify of Owner – Processed past Animal Welfare Organisation or Council Pound – C3B Form – PDF
  • Permanent Identification – P1A Form – PDF
  • Verification of Existing Microchip – M1 Form – PDF
  • Lifetime Registration – R2 Form – PDF
  • Society request for companion animal identification and registration forms (vets, breeders, authorised identifiers) – PDF

Burmese cat and Staffordshire Terrier portrait on white background

  • Microchips

    Canonical microchips for employ in NSW must comply with ISO:11784 and ISO:11785. ISO means International Standardisation for Organisations. A microchip scanner is used to read the animal'south microchip number, which is usually a 15-digit unique identification number. Even so, some older cats and dogs microchip identification number may contain letters as well as numbers.

    An implanted microchip does not cause whatever ongoing pain or discomfort to your cat or dog. The microchip does not require a battery or whatever maintenance and is designed to last the life of your pet.

    In NSW, all cats and dogs, other than exempt cats and dogs, must exist microchipped by 12 weeks of age or earlier beingness sold or given away, whichever happens first.

    If you buy a cat or dog in NSW that is not microchipped, you should report this to a local council for investigation and further action, if appropriate.

    All cats and dogs must be listed on the NSW Companion Animals Register (the Register). Following the implantation of the microchip, a Permanent Identification Form (P1A grade) is completed confirming the identification data that is to be entered on the Register.

    The Authorised Identifier (Vet or qualified implanter) or local council enters the identification information onto the Annals and bug the possessor with a Certificate of Identification.

    Entering identification information on the Register earlier the true cat or dog is lifetime registered helps in reuniting lost or stray animals with their owners.

    The data recorded on the Register is also used by authorised officers to enforce theCompanion Animals Human activity 1998. An authorised officer includes an authorised employee of the local council such a Ranger or whatever NSW Constabulary Officeholder.

    Only an Authorised Identifier can microchip a cat or domestic dog in NSW. An Authorised Identifier may be a vet or a person who has completed the relevant qualification. For example, an brute welfare organisation employee, a vet nurse, a pet grooming concern operator, an employee of a pet shop or a breeder.

    Some local councils offer depression cost microchipping services for residents. Contact your local council to find out more.

    Microchipping is normally included in the purchase price of a cat or dog. However, if yous need to microchip your cat or dog (because someone has given you the animal or the animate being is non microchipped), you should store around for the all-time price, as in that location is no set toll for microchipping.

  • What should yous do if your canis familiaris and cat's microchip number is not listed on the NSW Companion Animal Register?

    If you take had your cat or domestic dog microchipped in NSW, the Authorised Identifier must either enter the information onto the NSW Companion Animals Register and issue you lot a Certificate of Identification, or ship the data to your local quango for data entry within three days of implanting the microchip.

    The local quango must enter the information onto the NSW Companion Animate being Annals inside vii days of receipt of the information and issue yous a Certificate of Identification. If y'all have not received your document or you have concerns nearly the accuracy of the information on the NSW Companion Animals Register, you should accept any documentation you accept to your local quango.

  • How do yous register your dog or cat?

    Regardless of how you register your pet, you are encouraged to create a profile on the NSW Pet Registry (www.petregistry.nsw.gov.au). Having a profile and keeping your details up to date helps reunite yous and your pet should y'all they go missing.

    Registering your pet has never been easier:

    Online – NSW Pet Registry

    The NSW Pet Registry website was launched in July 2016 as part of the Government'due south delivery to promoting responsible pet ownership and improved creature welfare outcomes.

    The Registry allows pet owners whose animals take been microchipped to register cats and dog, update their contact details, study missing pets, transfer buying and pay lifetime registration fees all from a computer or mobile device.

    Over the counter – your local council

    Yous can besides register your pet over the counter at your local council.

    Pet owners seeking to register help animals, working dogs or dogs kept for breeding purposes will however need to carry out registration at a local council. Some eligible pensioners will likewise need to exist assessed for eligibility past their local quango.

    Over the counter and online – Service NSW

    Service NSW has been added to the list of registration agents to give pet owners an additional, convenient choice to annals pets.

    Eligible pet owners tin can register pets with Service NSW in person at a Service NSW centre or kiosk, or online using your MyServiceNSW account, which will link customers with your NSW Pet Registry account.

  • Registration fees

    New registration fees are in accordance with clause xviii of the Companion Animals Regulation 2018.

    Fee changes from 1 July 2021 are:

    Registration Type Registration clarification Previous Fee New Fee (From 1 July 2021)
    Dog – Desexed (past relevant age) Registration fee for an beast desexed past the relevant desexing age $60 $66
    Domestic dog – Desexed (eligible pensioner) Desexed animal owned past an eligible pensioner $26 $27
    Domestic dog – Desexed (sold by pound/shelter) Desexed brute sold by an eligible pound or shelter $30 $0
    Canis familiaris – Not Desexed or Desexed (later on relevant age) Combined registration fee and additional fee for an animal not desexed by the relevant desexing age $216 $224
    Canis familiaris – Not Desexed (not recommended) Creature with written notification from a vet that it should not be desexed $60 $66
    Domestic dog – Not Desexed (not recommended – pensioner) Beast owned past an eligible pensioner with written notification from a vet that it should not be desexed  – $27
    Domestic dog – Not Desexed (recognised breeder) Animal not desexed and kept by a recognised breeder for breeding purposes  $lx $66
    Dog – Working Working canis familiaris $0 $0
    Dog – Service of the Country Dog in the service of the State, for example, a constabulary canis familiaris $0 $0
    Assistance Beast Assistance Fauna $0 $0
    Cat – Desexed or Not Desexed Registration fee $50 $56
    Cat – Desexed (eligible pensioner) Desexed creature owned by an eligible pensioner $26 $27
    Cat – Desexed (sold past pound/shelter) Desexed animal sold past an eligible pound or shelter $25 $0
    Cat – Not Desexed (non recommended) Animal with written notification from a vet that it should not be desexed $50 $56
    Cat – Not Desexed (not recommended – pensioner) Animal owned by an eligible pensioner with written notification from a vet that it should non be desexed – $27
    Cat – Non Desexed (recognised breeder) Animal non desexed and kept past a recognised breeder for convenance purposes $50 $56
    Registration late fee To be paid if registration fee has not been paid within 28 days later the date on which the animal is required to be registered $17 $18
    Allow Type Clarification Previous Fee New Fee (From one July 2021)
    Cat not desexed by four months of historic period – $80 $81
    Dangerous dog – $195 $197
    Restricted dog – $195 $197
    Permit tardily fee Payable if the permit fee has non been paid 28 days after the date on which a allow was required to own the companion animal. $17 $eighteen

    *An eligible pensioner includes a person in receipt of the aged pension, war widow pension or disability pension. If y'all are unsure whether y'all are an eligible pensioner, delight contact your local council.

  • Exemptions from the microchipping and lifetime-registration requirement for cats and dogs in NSW

    If you lot own a cat born earlier 1 July 1999 and ownership has not changed, a working dog used for disposed stock on a rural property or a greyhound currently registered under the Greyhound Racing Act 2009, you do not need to take it microchipped or registered with your local council. However, information technology is recommended that you accept your cat or dog microchipped for its protection.

    Assistance animals must be microchipped and lifetime-registered but in that location is no registration fee payable.

    If activeness has been taken against you regarding the behaviour of your cat or domestic dog under the Companion Animals Act 1998, whatsoever applicable exemption is lost and your cat or canis familiaris must be microchipped and registered.

    A nuisance true cat or dog, a restricted dog and a declared dangerous or menacing dog, including a working dog that has been declared a dangerous domestic dog, must be microchipped and registered.

    Any cat or canis familiaris not otherwise required to be microchipped or registered that is taken into the custody of a quango pound or animal welfare system must be microchipped and registered before being returned to its owner (even if it is less than six months onetime).

  • Practise you need to microchip and register your domestic dog or cat if you lot are moving from some other land/territory to NSW?

    If yous are moving to NSW and are going to be here for three months or more, you must accept your cat or dog microchipped (if this has not already been done), entered on the NSW Companion Animals Annals and lifetime registered with your local council. This must occur within three months of moving to NSW.

    If your cat or domestic dog was microchipped outside NSW or before 1 July 1999 (when the Companion Animals Act 1998 came into upshot), you will need to provide proof of microchipping to your NSW local council. You will need to present a Verification of Existing Microchip (M1) Grade completed and signed by a Vet or other Authorised Identifier and a completed Permanent Identification (P1A) Class.

    Registration in another land or territory cannot be transferred to NSW.

    You may also have listed your cat or canis familiaris on a privately-operated national microchip database. These databases are non linked to the NSW Companion Animals Register. The NSW Companion Animals Register is a NSW Government database used to tape registration information for cats and dogs that reside in NSW.

    Yous should contact the operators of any databases on which your cat or dog is listed to update your contact details on your cat or dog's microchip tape:

  • Do yous need to microchip and annals your dog or true cat if you are moving to Australia?

    If you are going to live in NSW, you must identify and register your cat or dog with your local council within iii months of your arrival.

    Cats and dogs being imported to Commonwealth of australia must come across Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS) import conditions, including the requirement for microchipping before import to Commonwealth of australia. This is to minimise the risk of exotic diseases being introduced into Australia.

    Australia is free from many animal-related diseases found in other parts of the world.

    For further information on microchipping and registration requirements in NSW, contact your local council on your arrival in NSW.