Microchips ARE Necessary!
Imagine this. You and your family, including Rosco the
beagle, are piled in the family mini van driving down the interstate. You are finally
taking the vacation you have been
planning for months! All of a sudden the unthinkable happens and you are
involved in a 3 car pile up. Thankfully everyone is unharmed with just some damage
to the family mini van door. In the
chaos nobody notices that Rosco has found the broken door and used it to
escape! You are in the middle of nowhere, with a broken vehicle, and now your
beloved pet is missing; not a good start to your dream vacation and more like a
nightmare. You had planned this trip so well and had the itinerary down to the
minute. You also planned for the worse and had Rosco microchipped when he was
adopted. Your van is taken to the local garage and is promised to be fixed within
the hour and then your cell phone rings. It turns out Rosco is hanging out at
the local veterinarians office! He was picked up a mile from the accident site
and taken to the vet where he was scanned for a microchip. Now the vacation can
begin! This whole scenario could have been so much worse but luckily for you Rosco had a microchip and you have made sure
to keep your information up to date.
COLUMBUS, Ohio Animal
shelter officials housing lost pets that had been implanted with a microchip
were able to find the owners in almost three out of four cases in a recently
published national study.
According to the research, the return-to-owner rate for cats
was 20 times higher and for dogs 2 ½ times higher for microchipped pets than
were the rates of return for all stray cats and dogs that had entered the
shelters. Animal microchips are implanted at veterinary offices or shelters and
contain a unique number that is revealed when the pet is scanned by a microchip
detector. The number coincides with contact information that owners register
with a microchip manufacturer. This is the first time there has been good data about
the success of shelters finding the owners of pets with microchips, said Linda
Lord, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of veterinary
preventive medicine at Ohio State University.
In the study, the biggest reason owners could not be found
was because of an incorrect or disconnected phone number in the registration
database, Lord said. The chip is only as good as your ability as a pet owner to
keep your information up to date in the registry.
For the study, 53 shelters in 23 states agreed to maintain
monthly records about microchipped animals brought to the facilities. Only
shelters that automatically conduct scans for microchips on all animals were
eligible to participate. Data were collected from August 2007 to March 2008.
The shelters reported outcomes for a total of 7,704 microchipped animals.
Strays made up slightly more than half of the animals tracked in the study, or
53 percent. About 42 percent of the animals had been surrendered by their
owners, and were not factored into the return-to-owner rate.
87 percent of microchips were detected during a scan when the animals
entered the shelter. About 10 percent were detected during a medical
evaluation, and about 2 1/2 percent were detected just before the animals were
scheduled for euthanasia or at some other time. We were able to backtrack this
data and determine that 12 percent of microchips would have been missed without
multiple scans, Lord said. We know from a prior study that there are good
scanners on the market that can read all microchip frequencies out there. But
like any technology, itâs not 100 percent. Many shelters now scan multiple
times.
In all, owners were found for 72.7 percent of microchipped
animals. Among those found, 73.9 percent of the owners wanted the animals back
in their homes. In cases in the study in which owners were not found, the
reasons included incorrect or disconnected phone numbers (35.4 percent), owners
failure to return phone calls or respond
to letters (24.3 percent), unregistered microchips (9.8 percent) or microchips
registered in a database that differed from the manufacturer (17.2 percent). Is there room for improvement? Absolutely,
Lord said. We really need to focus on
not separating the microchip implantation process from registration. Veterinarians
have a great opportunity at an annual wellness exam to scan a microchip and
remind the owner of the need to keep information up to date in the registry.
Likewise, when shelters implant microchips, they need to tell an adopter how it
works and make sure information is in the registry before the animal leaves the
building. On average, only 1.8 percent
of all stray dogs and cats taken to participating shelters had microchips. Lord
said that though good statistics do not exist, veterinary experts estimate that
microchips are used in between 5 percent and 8 percent of animals in the United
States; mostly dogs, cats and horses.
The number of microchipped pets will only grow, Lord said,
in part because animal shelters are increasing the practice of implanting
microchips in every animal they adopt out to a new home. Because of these
multiple registration options, Lord said a new Web site developed by the
American Animal Hospital Association, http://petmicrochiplookup.org, is likely
to further improve the chances that owners of lost animals with microchips will
be found. The site, launched in late September, performs a real-time lookup of
a microchip number and determines which company has a registry for that
microchip. The site will tell users that
a microchip is registered with a specific database and list the registry number
to call. And then you know you have got a hit, Lord said. This is an important development because it is
an easy-to-access, single place to find out where microchips are registered.
She said that three of the six major registries in the
United States are working with the organization, and additional participation
is expected soon. The estimated cost to implant and register a microchip ranges
from about $25 to $75, depending on where the service is performed.
http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/shelterchip.htm
One of the main problems owners face with microchips is the
myths accompanied with microchipping. To help you make the best decision here
are some myths busted,
Myth: Having a microchip implanted will hurt my pet
Fact: No anesthetic is required for a microchip implant. The
procedure is performed at an animal hospital and is simple and similar to administering a
vaccine or a routine shot. The microchip comes preloaded in a sterile
applicator and is injected under the loose skin between the shoulder blades.
The process takes only a few seconds, and your pet will not react any more than
he would to a vaccination.
Myth: Pet microchips work like global positioning devices
(GPS) and tell me where my pet is located.
Fact: Pet microchips are not tracking devices. They are
radio-frequency identification (RFID) implants that provide permanent ID for
your pet.
Because they use RFID technology, microchips do not require
a power source like a GPS. When a microchip scanner is passed over the pet, the
microchip gets enough power from the scanner to transmit the microchip's ID
number. Since there is no battery and no moving parts, there is nothing to keep
charged, wear out, or replace. The microchip will last a lifetime.
Myth: My pet wears a collar with tags, so he does not need a
microchip.
Fact: All pets should wear collar tags imprinted with their
name and the phone number of their owner, but only a microchip provides
permanent ID that cannot fall off, be removed, or become impossible to read.
Furthermore, in the case of having to prove your pet is indeed your pet,
microchips are the ONLY form of identification that will hold up in the court
of law.
Myth: Microchips are expensive.
Fact: The average cost to have a microchip implanted by a
veterinarian is around $45, which is a one time fee and often includes
registration in a pet recovery database.
If your pet was adopted from a shelter or purchased from a
breeder, your pet may already have a microchip. Consult your pet adoption
paperwork, or have your pet scanned for a microchip at your next vet visit to
reveal the unique microchip ID number and register it.
Myth: Only dogs, not cats, need to be microchipped.
Fact: Both cats and dogs need to be microchipped.
Cats often do not wear collars, and may not have any other
form of ID. A recent study showed that less than 2% of cats without microchips
were returned home. However, if a cat is microchipped, the return-to-owner rate
is 20 times higher than if the cat was not microchipped.
Myth: My contact information is contained in the chip, and
anyone with a scanner can access it.
Fact: Microchips carry only a unique identification number.
If your pet gets lost and is taken to a vet clinic or animal
shelter, your pet will be scanned for a microchip to reveal his unique ID
number. That number will be called into the pet recovery service, and you will
be contacted using the contact information on file with your pet microchip.
**It is vital to keep your contact information up to date so
that you can be reached.
public.homeagain.com/microchipping-facts.htmlhttp://
Microchipping is becoming common practice among
Veterinarians, Breeders, and Shelters. Numbers show that microchips give your
pet the best chance of making it back home if they are ever lost. Obviously,
the microchip MUST be registered and the information associated with the
microchip number MUST be kept updated. Please do not let your pets have a
different story than Rosco. Microchip your pets today!
Morehead Animal Hospital is discounting microchips the months of July
and August!
