Microchips: The Ticket to Getting a Lost PET Safely Home

Volume 2 Issue 1
April 1, 2008
Author: Cheryl Hentz

By Cheryl Hentz

According to the American Kennel Club's Companion Animal Recovery program, eight to 10 million pets stray from home every year in the United States. Only a fraction of these animals are returned to their owners, despite the best efforts of animal shelters, rescue groups, animal control officers, and veterinarians.

That number alone is staggering but, sadly, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) estimates that some 46 million animals enter animal shelters every year and about half of them do not leave. These numbers have the potential to be significantly improved if the animals were microchipped.

Microchipping is recognized as the most effective and secure way of permanently identifying a pet. The technology to microchip has been around since 1989 and since then more than two million dogs and cats have been microchipped.

The microchip is the size of a grain of rice and is encased in a biocompatible glass, the same used in human pacemakers, to prevent rejection from the animal's body. In dogs and cats, the microchip is inserted into the loose skin on the back of the animal's neck using a specially designed implanting device. Insertion is a quick and easy process that causes no more discomfort than a usual vaccination.

Each microchip carries a unique number that is logged into a national database. Against this number, key information is stored about the dog and its owner including the dog's name, the owner's name and address, and a record of the dog's vaccinations. When a scanner is passed over the microchip, low frequency radio waves created by the scanner activate the microchip, allowing the unique number to be read...