dog owners in Taipei will now have to implant microchips in their dogs to help tackle the plague of strays in the city. The city administration has passed a new law that dog owners must put microchips in their dogs as soon as they are three months old.

The microchips will have a number that will reveal the owner's name, address, telephone number as well as information about the dog: its age, looks and vaccination date. "It can help us return missing dogs to owners,' said Cheng Chun-pin from the Taipei Municipal Institute for Animal Health. The Taiwan government hopes to introduce this system all over Taiwan. Taiwanese dog owners living in high-rise apartments often abandon their pets when they grow old. Stray dogs disrupt traffic, pollute streets and sometimes attack children.