Houston, TX Animal Ordinances: Microchipping (2026)

Sec. 6-85 makes it unlawful to own, possess or control a dog or cat four months or older without an implanted microchip. Sec. 6-86 then requires the owner or custodian to give BARC animal services the chip's identification number and a physical description of the animal before it reaches four months old, pay the fee set in the city fee schedule, and separately register the same chip number with its manufacturer. If contact information changes, the owner has 30 days to update both BARC and the manufacturer; on a change of ownership, the original owner must notify BARC and the manufacturer within 30 days, and the new owner must supply BARC with a name, address and phone number in that same window.

Sec. 6-86(b) excuses nonresidents keeping the animal in the city fewer than 30 days, residents of fewer than 30 days, and temporary keepers of an abandoned or lost animal held fewer than 30 days. Sec. 6-87 sets separate registration fees for sterilized and unsterilized animals, gives residents 60 and older a sterilized registration regardless of the animal's status, and lets an owner of a sterilized service animal skip the initial fee and pay only the renewal. Under Sec. 6-89, the registration expires on the earliest of the rabies vaccination's expiration, the animal's death, the 30th day after an unamended change of ownership or address, or the registration anniversary if a veterinarian certifies vaccination is medically inadvisable; missing a renewal adds a late processing fee.