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A Microchip Can be Your Dog's Ticket Home
By Laura J.
Barmore
There
were thousands of displaced pets that were victims of
hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma that were rescued only to end up in foster
homes and shelters as far away as San Francisco, CA, Madison WI and Cincinnati
OH, and others. About 20 Labrador Retrievers went to AdoptALab.org in Muncie,
IN.
As fast as shelters in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and
Florida were being emptied by rescue groups, they were being filled again by
the tens of thousands of pets still stranded by the hurricanes. Some officials
estimated that there were as many as 11,000 pets displaced from New Orleans by
hurricane Katrina alone.
But it doesn’t have to be a disaster which causes the
separation from your loved one. Imagine if one morning you open your front door
to retrieve the newspaper and Shadow dashes through the door in pursuit of a
squirrel, a cyclist or even the neighbor’s cat. Or perhaps a thunderstorm
causes him to jump the fence and bolt off. Losing a pet can be heartbreaking,
and an unsuccessful search even more so.
Even if Shadow has a license and tags, he may not always be
wearing his collar, and collars and tags come off or unfortunately may even be
taken off by thieves. For many years, because collar tags were so easily lost
or removed, pet owners and breeders have relied on tattoos as a more permanent
form of pet identification. A tattoo is etched on the inside of the dog’s thigh
near his abdomen. The area is shaved to make application easier and less
irritating to the skin, but as the fur grows back it can obscure the tattoo
number.
Tattoos have drawbacks; although they cannot get lost as tags
can, they can be hard to find and read if the dog is scared, aggressive or has
a heavy coat. Many shelters do not search for tattoos; dogs that enter shelters
are often traumatized by the experience and can be too difficult to handle so
that the tattoo can’t be found.
Enter the microchip, one of the latest and most popular
forms of identification. A microchip is a capsule-shaped tiny transponder the
size of a grain of rice, measuring 2.0mm in diameter and 11.0mm in length. The
chip, antenna, and capacitor are encased in a tiny glass tube. The tube is
composed of soda lime glass which is known for compatibility with living tissue
and should have no physical effect on the animal. The device itself contains no
batteries or chemicals and its electronic circuitry is only activated when it
is being scanned. It has an active life of about 25 years, well past the life
of your dog.
The method of implanting the microchip is very much like
administering a vaccination. The microchip comes pre-loaded in a sterile
syringe-like instrument. The microchip is implanted subcutaneously (between the
skin and muscle tissue) on the back of the animal’s neck, between the shoulder
blades. Microchips can be implanted without anesthesia, as the pain involved is
minimal, about the same as an ordinary injection. The entire procedure takes
less than 10 seconds. Post-injection reactions are very rare and once inserted
it can only be removed surgically. Being under the skin, it is safe from
weather, erosion, alternation, theft and cannot be seen by the human eye.
Before and after implantation, the chip is scanned to make
sure it is working and in the right place. The owner is given a registration
card to be mailed to the registration service, which is the “clearinghouse”
when a dog is lost, thus allowing the owner to be contacted.
The age at which this can be done varies with the size and
development of the dog, as a certain amount of muscle tissue is necessary. With
larger breeds, it can be done by 7 weeks, which is the time when most puppies go
to their new homes. Most vets generally now have the capacity to insert the
microchips. Implanting the microchip and registering the information costs
around $25.00, so it is a wonderfully low cost approach to identification.
Each microchip has its own universally recognized
identification number, which means that even if millions of microchips are
implanted worldwide, each one can be identified without fail. Microchips are a
form of automatic identification technology, similar to bar codes and magnetic stripes.
Because they use radio-frequency signals to relay the stored information, they
are referred to as radio-frequency identification (RFID).
Once the microchip is successfully implanted, it can be read
using a scanning device called a microchip reader. The scanner emits a
low-frequency radio signal (125 kHz), activating the microchip. The frequency
is picked up by a tiny antenna in the transponder and the number is retrieved,
decoded, and the ten digit number is displayed in the microchip reader’s LCD screen.
Scanners are provided to animal control, humane shelters and other rescue
organizations so that all stray pets are scanned and those with microchips are
reunited with their owners.
By consulting the appropriate chip registry database,
relevant information —including the dog’s owner, breeder, emergency contact,
even health problems and food requirements can be obtained. That’s why it is
important to report your address or phone changes to the clearinghouse so its
data is always current and accurate. There are no annual fees, owners pay a one
time fee for registration, but there is a charge for information changes such
as change of address. Change of ownership will require a new registration.
There are two primary microchip manufacturers in the United
States. They market their products under the names “Home Again” and “AVID”
(American Veterinary Identity Devices). Programs like the American Kennel Club
(AKC) Companion Animal Recovery (CAR) program maintain worldwide databases so
they can help reunite lost pets with their families. According to the AKC CAR,
more than 900,000 pets and companion animals have been registered in its
database, which also includes tattooed animals, and almost 50,000 pets have
been reunited with their families.
The advantages to microchips are obvious — the process is
quick, inexpensive, no more painful than a vaccination, the chip can’t get lost
like a collar can, the number is unique, the dog can be easily scanned and the
owners name and address is available on a regional and/or national database so
a dog can be returned quickly and safely. It is advisable to have your
veterinarian test the microchip on an annual basis in order to make sure that
it is properly transmitting data.
There are some drawbacks though. A few chips do move out of
place, a problem that Schering Plough’s marketer of the Home Again microchip
has addressed with a polypropylene shell on the tip of the transponder. This
coating bonds the transponder to the dog’s subcutaneous tissue. And although
more and more pet owners are microchipping their pets, there are still a number
of shelters that do not have scanners, and many pets are picked up by good
Samaritans rather than somebody with scanner access. Still it does increase the
likelihood that if your dog dashes out the door that you and your loved one
will be united.
Just ask Frances Jackson owner of Millie a Labrador
Retriever who went missing for five years and was returned to her owners
because she had a chip implant. Where Millie spent the five years is a mystery,
but when Millie showed up at an animal shelter, workers were able to track down
her home because she wears an id number microchip.
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