Fort Worth, TX Animal Ordinances: Microchipping (2026)

City Code § 6-17(a) sets the four-month deadline for microchipping every dog and cat in the city; subsection (b) offers the only exemption, a valid city-issued license, which itself carries a council-set fee and must be displayed on the animal at all times in place of the microchip. § 6-18 grandfathers licenses already valid on the ordinance's July 6, 2018 effective date, letting the owner keep renewing the license through its current term, but requires microchipping or relicensing once that license expires. § 6-19 then keeps the microchip itself useful: owners must maintain current registration with a microchip registration company, update their contact information (address or phone) within 30 days of any change, and, on a change of ownership, the previous owner must de-register the chip from their own name within 30 days while the new owner re-registers it in theirs within the same window. § 6-21 makes noncompliance with the whole article, not owning a microchipped or licensed dog or cat past four months of age, a criminal offense, though it carves out defenses for accredited research institutions, new residents (fewer than 30 or 60 days depending on residency status), temporary caretakers of a lost or abandoned animal for fewer than 30 days, and feral cats enrolled in the city's trap-neuter-return program.