FERRETS have a reputation for nipping up a trouser leg or going astray.

But Bolton's only ferret welfare officer, Sheila Crompton, is hoping to reduce the number of them going missing by encouraging owners to have their animals chipped.

Mrs Crompton, who owns 47 ferrets which she keeps in a bedroom of her terraced home in Astley Bridge, has run Bolton Ferret Welfare for the past nine years. She has recently undertaken a microchipping course, and says that people have a better chance of seeing their beloved furry friends again if the pets are fitted with a chip.

This week, the Bolton Evening News reported that a family had been left heartbroken after their pet ferret Taz escaped from the garden of their home.

Mrs Crompton recently began tagging her own ferrets. The domesticated polecats are tagged using an 11.5 centimetre chip which is inserted under the skin, between the shoulder blades.

The device contains all relevant information about the ferret, including the owner's name and address.

The chip can be read simply by passing a specially designed scanner over the animal which reads information from the device.

This is then used to access a national database, Petlog, which gives the details of the owners. The system is the same as that used to chip other household pets such as cats and dogs. Mrs Crompton, who lives on Eastbank Street, now has equipment to carry out the procedure after taking a short course, in which she practised on stuffed toys.

She said: "Every animal would be better off chipped, and any vets service can scan the animals if they are found, which should be free of charge. Keeping ferrets has slowly become more popular over the years and there are a lot in Bolton.

"I get quite a few brought to me which have been pets and have been lost, but I can not trace the owner if it is not chipped, and with albino ferrets, they all look alike."

Mrs Crompton's most recent find was a ferret discovered stray in Great Lever, after it ran into a video shop and frightened the customers.