Terrebonne Parish, LA Animal Ordinances: Microchipping (2026)

Parish Code § 5-25 requires every owned dog and cat older than three months to be implanted with an identifying microchip, and it makes the owner responsible for two separate registrations: the microchip number must be registered with the Terrebonne Parish animal control division and with the national registry tied to the specific chip. Whenever the animal changes owners, address, or phone number, § 5-25 requires the owner to update both the animal control division and the national registry with the new information. The microchip mandate is tied directly to licensing: § 5-25 states that nothing in the section supersedes the annual license requirement in § 5-7, and in order to obtain a dog or cat license, the animal must already be microchipped.

Because licensing runs on an annual cycle with new residents required to license within 30 days of establishing residency, the microchip requirement effectively attaches at the same point every owned dog or cat enters the parish's licensing system. The requirement also surfaces at impoundment: under § 5-12(c), if an impounded animal is not already microchipped when the owner redeems it, the animal shelter will microchip it as part of redemption for a $15 fee. Animals found by someone other than the animal shelter must be scanned for a microchip as part of the fourteen-day search for the owner required under § 5-23.

Violations of § 5-25 itself carry no separately printed fine, so enforcement runs through § 5-7's licensing penalties and the parish's general penalty clause, § 1-6, which allows up to $500 or 30 days in jail.