Valencia County, NM Animal Ordinances: Microchipping (2026)

036, the LICENSING provision of the Animal Control chapter, requires anyone harboring or maintaining a dog or cat older than 3 months to obtain an annual license or permit from animal control, with the shelter keeping a record of every license issued (division (A)). Getting a license requires presenting a current rabies vaccination certificate, and the licensed animal must wear its current license tag at all times; an animal caught without its tag costs the owner a $10 fee, refundable once proof of the underlying license is shown to an animal control officer.

Division (B) waives the license fee for service animals kept to assist an impaired person. Division (C) adds the county's chip mandate in a single sentence: all animals over the age of 3 months within the county are required to have a microchip implanted. 033(G)(4) builds an incentive around the two mandates together, letting senior citizens register a sterilized and microchipped dog or cat for free each year as long as they present a current rabies vaccination. 080 use the same licensing framework: a person holding a permitted-premises permit is excused from buying individual licenses for the dogs and cats they own under that permit.

Because the microchip duty sits inside the licensing section rather than as a stand-alone offense, a violation is enforced through the chapter's general misdemeanor penalty rather than a chip-specific fine.