'Noseprints' to bring lost dogs home

An AI-generated illustration of a dog receiving a biometric "noseprint" scan at a municipal registration booth. Courtesy Incheon Metropolitan City

Move over, microchips and dangling collar tags: The next big thing in municipal canine security is almost literally right under your dog’s nose.

The western port city of Incheon said Friday that it is launching a pilot program next month to register dogs using their canine rhinaria patterns — the highly individualized, wrinkled skin patterns on a dog or cat's nose that act exactly like human fingerprints.

For the modern pet owner, traditional registration has long posed a dilemma.

Microchips, while effective, require insertion of a chip under the skin, a procedure that leaves many owners squeamish. External tags are less invasive but notorious for falling off during a game of fetch or getting lost in the brush.

Incheon’s solution? A simple, painless digital scan of a dog’s snout.

Starting in August, pet owners in the city’s Gyeyang and Michuhol districts will be able to bring their furry friends to mobile pop-up booths at local apartment complexes and dog parks to have their pets’ noses officially logged into a database.

There is a slight legal catch. Korean law does not yet recognize nose prints as an official form of mandatory animal registration. To bridge the gap, the city is offering a package deal: If an unregistered dog visits a booth, the city will bundle the high-tech nose scan with a traditional collar tag for free through December.

The service is not exclusive to the two pilot districts; any resident of Incheon can take advantage of the pop-ups to get their dog scanned.

Municipal officials hope the touch-free method will dramatically boost registration numbers and make it easier to reunite lost pets with their owners.

"Registering your dog is the most fundamental duty for a responsible pet owner," said Jang Se-hwan, head of Incheon's agricultural and livestock department. "We encourage citizens to take advantage of this entirely free pilot program before the end of the year."

Whether the technology will truly replace the microchip remains to be seen, but for five months, Incheon's canines will be lining up for a high-tech nose "boop" in the name of public safety.

This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.