Parliament official announces plans for pet traceability system across Georgia

A unified system for tracing dogs and cats across Georgia will be created to address the issue of stray animals, Maia Bitadze, the Chair of the Georgian Parliament's Environmental Protection Committee, said on Wednesday.

Bitadze added the Parliament had started deliberations on the bill to ensure “humane legal foundations” for addressing the challenge.

Involving registration of pets and a “large-scale census” of stray dogs, the system will be introduced in stages, with ₾80 million ($30.13mln) to be directed to municipalities for the state budget for the purpose.

Various training programmes will be created to equip owners of animals with certain skills [...] The main goal of the draft law is to help raise awareness and eliminate the harmful practice of [owners] throwing dogs [out] in the street and further breeding them”, Bitadze said.

The lawmaker added the bill would prohibit ownership of more than three pets in apartments of multi-apartment residential buildings starting in July 2025, with individuals adopting from shelters exempt from the limitation.

The draft law also regulates means for transportation and walking of pets, including prohibition of walking of domestic animals without a leash.