From June 1st, distributors are obliged to wear a microchip so that their owners can be identified when their pet dog or cat gets lost.
Under such circumstances, the stolen Chihuahua was safely protected in Kitakyushu City with the microchip as the decisive factor.
The protected male Chihuahua was three months old when it was stolen from a pet shop in Kitakyushu City in April.
The store was wearing a microchip with a 15-digit identification number on this Chihuahua.
According to police, Chihuahua was taken away when a customer who visited the store requested that he "want to take care of his dog" and distracted the clerk's attention.
The police who received the report proceeded with the investigation based on the image of the security camera, found Chihuahua at the home of a 50-year-old customer who visited the store on the 1st, and confirmed the identification number of the microchip that was attached. By the way, it matched that of the stolen dog.
Police said in this case, "the microchip was the decisive factor in identifying the stolen dog."
The customer was arrested on suspicion of theft and denied the charges, saying, "The dog was given to me by a friend. I haven't stolen it."
In order to facilitate the identification of owners of lost or abandoned dogs and cats, the revised Act on Welfare and Management of Animals, which requires distributors to wear microchips, was enforced from June 1, but theft. It also helped identify the damaged pet.