BIG Brother is watching your pet - or at least he will be if an 'identichip' scheme for dogs gets the go-ahead.

Under an initiative planned by Preston Council and the RSPCA, owners can have a microchip injected under their pet's skin. The chip would contain details of where the dog lived.

Should the pet escape or get lost, dog wardens would be able to trace it almost immediately by scanning the chip and decoding the data. The idea is to make it easier to trace owners of stray dogs. In a bid to encourage people to have their dogs tagged, financial incentives have been included in the plan. A similar scheme in Kirklees, West Yorkshire, has been welcomed by dog wardens and owners alike. In its first four years of operation more than 1,000 owners have volunteered their pets for the scheme.

Kirklees's senior dog warden John Stead said: "The system for getting a lost dog back is so complicated, it really is a minefield."

He admitted some owners had been put off by the thought of having an electronic gadget in their pets. But Preston Borough council which consulted vets before proposing the scheme, said it was safe and painless when properly applied.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.