Pet Registration in the Moscow Region Can Now Be Completed Online

Convenient Digital Oversight

Pet registration in the Moscow Region has become significantly more accessible thanks to a newly launched online service. Since September 1, 2023, the region has required all dogs older than three months to be registered.

Cats and other domestic animals may be registered voluntarily. The service, available via the regional government portal, aims to create a unified register of household pets, making it easier to locate lost animals and increasing owner accountability. Tens of thousands of dogs live in the region, which makes this initiative especially impactful.

The rollout links government digital services with regional veterinary systems, further stimulating IT development. It also represents a model that other countries could adapt as they expand digital public services. For pet owners, digital registration means faster recovery of lost animals and fewer in‑person visits to administrative offices. More broadly, it is a significant step toward municipal digitalization, improving community practices around animal welfare and reducing the burden on local services that handle stray animals.

A Future Standard

Developers expect the service to expand: additional species may be added, along with automated notifications about microchipping, online fines for unregistered animals, and deeper integration with smart‑city systems. Potential features include GPS tags, centralized databases, mobile applications for pet owners, and municipal APIs — all contributing to more transparent animal‑welfare monitoring.

“We have updated the regional digital service for pet owners and made the registration process even more convenient. Residents no longer need to visit veterinary clinics — everything is now digital. A veterinary specialist verifies the data and completes the registration. After that, the owner receives an extract from the pet registry and a unique registration number in their personal account.”

Nadezhda Kurtyanik

Minister of Public Administration, Information Technologies and Communications of the Moscow Region

The system may also interest other Russian regions and international partners, especially where smart‑city programs and digital public services are actively evolving. Shared templates for electronic services, reusable platform modules, and cross‑system integration could support a broader rollout.

Veterinary clinics, municipalities, and owners would all have unified access to data on registered pets, missing animals, and overall animal‑control conditions (including stray populations and bite‑incident statistics).

A Model Region

Pet registration is becoming a nationwide trend in Russia, with new regulations strengthening owner responsibility. The Moscow Region remains a leading example: in the city of Kashira, online registration has been available since September 20, 2023.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Moscow Region also published detailed guidelines that year. In the Shchyolkovo district, dog registration is mandatory for pets older than three months, while the Naro‑Fominsk municipality offers free registration (owners only pay for microchips).

Applications and Integration

The new service represents a major step in modernizing municipal animal‑management systems. As the number of pets grows and stray‑animal risks increase, digital registries offer a practical and scalable solution.

Within the next one to two years, the service is expected to evolve with mobile apps, veterinary integration, expanded species lists, and new functions such as ownership transfer, deregistration, and neighborhood‑level reports.

The pet‑registration module could also be adapted for other domains — tree inventories, plant monitoring, or broader environmental resources — as part of a smart‑city ecosystem.