East Baton Rouge Parish, LA Animal Ordinances: Microchipping (2026)

Sec. 14:208(a)(6) requires that any dog declared "potentially dangerous" be microchipped at the owner's sole expense, unless the dog was already legibly tattooed before the microchip requirement took effect, in which case the existing tattoo can stand in for a chip. The microchip or tattoo number must be reported to the Animal Control and Rescue Center for entry into the owner's record within fourteen days of the potentially-dangerous declaration. The requirement steps up at the next classification level: Sec. 14:208(b)(4)(b) mandates that an owner obtain a microchip, again at the owner's own expense, for any dog classified as "dangerous," as one of several mandates that must be completed within thirty days of that classification, alongside purchasing and affixing an annual "dangerous" dog tag and notifying the center immediately if the dog gets loose, bites, is sold, given away, dies or the owner moves.

Outside these two classification triggers, the code does not impose a microchip requirement on the general pet-owning public; ordinary registration under Sec. 14:200 and Sec. 14:201 instead relies on a rabies-vaccination tag worn on the collar. The dangerous-dog owner must also execute a document acknowledging the classification and agreeing to comply with the title's requirements before selling or giving the dog away, and must provide the new owner's contact information to the Animal Control and Rescue Center.