Registering your dog in Chile: the Registro Nacional de Mascotas and Ley Cholito

What is Ley Cholito?

Law 21.020, published in 2017, sets the duties of anyone who keeps a pet in Chile. Its popular name comes from Cholito, a dog whose abuse case in 2017 shocked the country. Under the law, keeping a pet means registering it, giving it food, shelter and good treatment, the veterinary care it needs, and never making it suffer.

What the law and its regulation ask of dog owners

• Identify your dog with a permanent, indelible device that links it to you.
• Register it in the Registro Nacional de Mascotas.
• Feed it, look after its health and pick up after it.
• Keep it at home, or wherever you arrange for its care, in hygienic and safe conditions.
• Never abandon it: the law treats abandonment as animal cruelty.
• Prevent it from harming people or their property, and answer for it if it does.

Separately, a Ministry of Health regulation requires every dog in Chile to have a current rabies vaccination, backed by a vet's certificate.

The microchip: what Chile asks for

A microchip is a capsule the size of a grain of rice, implanted under the skin. Its unique 15-digit number, under the ISO 11784 standard, is linked to you in the registry. It isn't a GPS tracker: it can't locate your dog, but anyone with a reader can identify it.

Under the regulation, a vet, or a vet technician supervised by one, implants it from two months of age. You can get it done at vet clinics, public veterinary centers and municipalities with vet services; some municipalities do it for free for residents through the national responsible ownership program (PTRAC).

Permanent ID is mandatory, but the regulation also accepts an external device, such as a firmly attached tag marked with a six-character code from the registry. Even so, the registry recommends the chip, and for the European Union the SAG asks for the ID to be in place before the last rabies shot.

How to register your dog, step by step

Registration is free, open all year, and done online or at the municipality (municipalidad) of the comuna where your dog lives. Either way, a municipal officer reviews it before approving it. The site is in Spanish.

Online, at registratumascota.cl

• Ask your vet for the comprobante de existencia: a signed document with your dog's details and its microchip number.
• Have your ID ready, plus proof the dog is yours, such as a purchase receipt or adoption certificate. If you have neither, a simple declaration of possession works; the form is on the same site.
• Log in with ClaveÚnica, the Chilean government login, or with a Chilean ID card (cédula de identidad), and fill in your dog's details.
• Upload the documents and the simple declaration stating you're not banned from keeping animals.
• Wait for your municipality's review. If something is missing, it can give you up to 30 business days to complete it, and it will email you whether it was approved or rejected.

No ClaveÚnica or Chilean ID yet? Go in person. The regulation accepts your ID card or another official identity document, so ask your municipality whether your passport is enough. You can go with or without your dog; without it, bring the comprobante de existencia.

Once approved, your dog gets a registration number and you get a free registration certificate, valid for your dog's whole life.

Deadlines and notices

The regulation behind Ley Cholito sets these deadlines:

Based on Decree 1,007 of 2018, the regulation of Law 21.020. Checked on October 19, 2026: confirm at registratumascota.cl before you start.

What happens if you don't register?

Ley Cholito has no specific fine for not registering: any other breach of the law carries a fine of 1 to 30 UTM (unidades tributarias mensuales, an indexed unit used for fines), which can double for repeat offenses. Cases go to the local police courts (juzgados de policía local), and municipalities check that dogs are identified and registered.

For repeat offenses, the judge can also order the animal to be seized. The law also allows municipalities to rescue animals without ID found in streets, squares, parks or empty lots.

Why registration and the chip matter for travel and lost dogs

To fly out of Chile with your dog you need the SAG's Certificado Zoosanitario de Exportación (export health certificate), and the SAG requires your dog to be registered in the Registro Nacional de Mascotas, whether you apply online or at an office. It also asks for a vet health certificate no more than 10 days old, the rabies vaccination certificate and whatever your destination country requires.

The chip helps you come back, too: if you return within 60 days, the same certificate can be used to re-enter Chile, as long as it lists the chip (or a legible tattoo) and the rabies vaccination is still valid.

If your dog gets lost, a chip can't fall off or fade. Every municipality must have at least one chip reader, and vet clinics can read it too. Whoever finds a dog can report it to the municipality and, if the dog is registered, the lost-pet alert system notifies you by text message or email. From then, you have 24 hours to reply.

To make it work

• Keep your phone number, email and address up to date in the registry.
• If your dog goes missing, tell your municipality within 3 days.
• When you register, or later, you can allow your contact details to be shared directly with whoever finds your dog.

How we can help at The Place's

If you're flying out of Chile with your dog, our relocation service is run by a licensed veterinarian: we do pre-travel health checks, verify vaccines, and advise you on international requirements, documents and health certificates. And we speak English; Joshua is from Denver.

If your dog stays while you travel, at The Place's it plays freely as a pack on natural grass by day and sleeps indoors, in a gallery with beds and blankets, with a vet on site. For new clients we ask for a first meeting, up-to-date vaccines and spaying or neutering.