HOW TO: Identify your Animal

All livestock must be marked or identified under the Animal Identification Act (Act No. 6 of 2002). Each livestock owner must have his or her own identification tag with a unique code. Tattooing is commonly considered as the safest and most legal method of identifying goats, especially when they are lost or stolen and later discovered. One disadvantage of this method is that the tattooed ears can be cut off. Other animal identification methods, such as ear tagging and ear notching, can be used in conjunction with tattooing.

Tattooing

How to tattoo goats:

• Clean the inner part of the ear lobe thoroughly before tattooing goats so that the ink can easily fill the holes made by the tattoo pliers.

• Smear or apply the tattoo ink to the tattooed area.

• Verify that the tattooing character sequence is correct according to the registration certificate.

• Hold the tattooing pliers against the skin until holes appear, then release.

• Using your fingers, rub the ink into the holes.

• Clean up any excess ink, and the characters should be visible as black dots in the ear.

Tattoo tools (source: Dept. agriculture, forestry & fishery)