Walton County, FL Animal Ordinances: Microchipping (2026)

Sec. 5-35 gives Walton County pet owners three acceptable identification options, a collar, a tattoo, or an implanted microchip, and any one of the three satisfies the ordinance as long as it identifies the owner's name, address, and phone number. Owners who choose a tattoo must register it with Walton County Animal Services so the county can trace it back to them. The requirement is a strict property-based standard: it is a violation of the animal control article for an owner to let their animal off the owner's own property without one of these three identifiers attached, and an officer who finds an unidentified animal at large may pick it up and place it in the animal control shelter rather than return it on the spot.

That impoundment carries its own consequences under Sec. 5-39: any animal held at the shelter that is not already microchipped will be microchipped at the owner's expense before it can be released, on top of whatever daily boarding fee and civil penalty apply to the underlying at-large or nuisance violation. The county's own fee resolution under Sec. 5-41 lists microchipping and rabies vaccination as services billed at cost rather than at a flat rate, so the exact charge varies with the veterinary or shelter cost at the time of the procedure.

Because identification is checked whenever an officer handles a loose or impounded animal, it functions as Walton County's practical substitute for a dog or cat license: there is no separate registration fee for owning a pet, only the requirement that it be traceably marked.