According to the American Humane Association, only about 17% of lost dogs and 2% of lost cats actually find their owners after being lost. In fact, more than 20 million pets are euthanized year after year because animal rescue units cannot find the original owners. But you need not fear because there is now an effective way of tracking down lost pets.
Enter the microchips, tiny devices that have been particularly useful in the return of lost pets. This is a permanent radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip is implanted under the pet's skin. Implantation is done using a hypodermic needle. The identification number stored in this tiny transponder cannot be lost, altered and intentionally removed.
Veterinarians and most animal shelters can provide this service. If you opt to have a microchip inserted in your pet, the fee is $5 to $10 in most animal shelters, and about $50 at private veterinary clinics. The process is quick and painless as a microchip ID is a very small chip, it's just about the size of a grain of rice.
HomeAgain Pet Recovery Service, 24PetWatch and AVID (American Veterinary Identification Devices) Microchip ID are the three companies that produce these microchip IDs. The companies that produce these microchips have their own national database that stores all the pet information.
A scanner sends a safe radio wave signal to the microchip and when the chip receives this signal, it sends data (the microchip number) back to the scanner to be displayed in a viewing window. There are small handheld scanners that have a reading range of about 3 inches. While larger, more powerful scanners that have reading ranges that vary from 6 to 20 inches can be used for various commercial and research applications.
If a pet is found by local authorities or taken to a shelter, it is scanned during intake to see if a chip exists. If a microchip is detected, authorities call the recovery service and provide them the ID number, the pet's description, and the location of the animal. The recovery service will be the one to notify the owner that the pet has been found, and where to go to recover the animal.
For pets traveling to all countries with the exception of China, you should use ISO 15 digit microchip that meets ISO standards 11784/11785. This is because the immigration officers use the microchips to compare the pet they are scanning to the presented veterinary documents.
There are still some owners who are against microchips even though studies have shown that using microchips to track your pet is completely safe. There is an issue reported that these microchips are the culprits that cause Fibro Sarcomas in the animals that have been implanted with these devices.
However, a lot of pet owners are not bothered by this issue because of the advantages that microchipping offers. Injecting a microchip is just like any other injection or vaccination. Anesthesia is not even required or recommended. The AAHA (American Animal Hospital Association, 2007) goes on to state that "The chip is made out of an inert, biocompatible substance, which means it won't cause an allergic reaction in your furry friend, and it won't degenerate over time". When properly implanted, a small layer of connective tissue forms around the microchip thus actually preventing movement or migration of the chip.
From the moment you adopted your pet, your pet's health and safety is in your hands. Whether to have our pets microchipped or not, the decision is yours.
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