Are you planning on traveling to Europe with your pet this year? You'll need to have him microchipped. That's the newest law out of Europe.

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.