Microchip Problems Spur Pet Owner Concerns
The following story, broadcast on WFAA-TV, points out the fallibility of microchipping your pet. Microchips are often invaluable in returning lost pets, even years later, but human error and technology limits can result in false negative readings.
In other words, your microchipped cat could be turned into a local shelter, but if improper scanning results in the chip not being detected, Fluffy could be euthanized at the end of a 72-hr holding period, just as nearly happened in the following story.
Chip problems spur pet owner, Humane Society concerns
01:38 AM CDT on Tuesday, July 21, 2009
By JONATHAN BETZ / WFAA-TVWFAA-TV
Sammy
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GARLAND – When Rick Rush lost his dog “Sammy” (right) over a week ago, he said he took comfort knowing his black Labrador had been micro-chipped.
“I know the chip works,” he said. “The vet checked the chip in the last checkup and it works.”
But, something went wrong when Sammy was picked up by animal control in Garland. Shelter employees found the dog within hours, but they never found his implanted microchip. While Rush spent days searching for his beloved pet, Sammy sat in the city’s shelter.
“I rely on that chip,” he said. “This case, it did not work and that’s pretty upsetting with me right now.”
Millions have put the tiny glass microchips in their pets. Companies promise owners the technology helps reunite them with their dogs or cats if they become lost.
When a found animal shows up at a clinic or shelter, workers scan the animal with a wand. The small chip emits a radio signal with the owner’s information.
The city of Garland insists it scans every animal – dead or alive – that enters its facility. However, directors admit it’s easy to miss the chips.
While the chip did register when the dog became lost last year, shelter workers said they are unsure why it didn’t this time.
“Any type you have a mechanical device, there’s no surefire measure to make sure it’s going to work every time, 100 percent of the time,” said Jason Chessher, Garland’s deputy health director.
To show off the technology, shelter workers took News 8 to a display in the lobby. Initially, workers had trouble getting the wand to work.
“It’s not picking it up,” said Diana Oats, the shelter’s manager, as she repeatedly waved the wand over the chip.
It took several swipes before the chip registered.
“You have to be almost on top of it,” Oats said. “It has to be very close to the animal, if not touching the animal, to pick up on the chip.”
The chipmakers defend the technology, insisting it has returned hundreds of thousands of lost pets.
Still, the Humane Society of the United States said more needs to be done.
“There are variables and there is still cause for concern,” said John Snyder, Humane Society.
Different companies use different radio frequencies and not all scanners can read the competition. Many shelters, including Garland, do have a global scanner that can read all frequencies.
To clear any possible confusion, the Humane Society said companies should agree on one frequency.
Advocates also worry shelter or clinic workers may not be properly trained with the wands and that many chipped pets are slipping through.
“The burden to make it work falls on the staff of the animal shelters,” Snyder said. “It’s not a two-second process.”
Still, directors at Garland’s animal shelter stand behind the chips. In the past 100 days, workers said they’ve found 96 chipped animals.
“I think they’re fairly reliable,” Chessher said. “I think we are fairly efficient at picking up the microchips of animals that come through the shelter.”
After five days, Rush eventually found his dog at the city shelter, but he said he worries what would have happened, if he hadn’t found Sammy when he did.
“He’s my dog and I can’t imagine him being put down because somebody couldn’t read a chip,” he said.
You should never rely solely upon a microchip to recover your lost pet. ID tags ensure a quick reunion, and don’t require a scanner to reveal your contact information. Pet recovery services like Together Tag not only display your phone number on the tag, but also store extensive info online, including your pet’s medical history and vet’s contact info, ensuring that when Fluffy is found, she’ll get the medical attention she needs even if you can’t be reached right away.
Pairing a microchip with an ID tag is the only effective means of ensuring that if your cat is recovered she’ll be returned to you.
More Info:
The Cat’s Meow’s Guide to Pet Recovery
[PHOTOS: SiouxCityJournal.com, WFAA-TV]
I was microchipped at the Humane Society just before Mom brought me home. The chip was in the area of my upper neck/shoulder blades. A few years ago our vet here scanned it so she could put the info in my file. It took awhile to find it! It had moved way down to my left side!
I sure hope shelter staff really scan the entire torso to make sure the chip hasn’t moved away from the typical insertion location.
Hello Skeezy, I see even a chip doesn’t fully protect our pets against losses. We owners must just be extra careful where our pets roam. People need to be extra careful to protect our pals!
That’s why I always tell folks to go to the shelter and keep going every 2 or 3 days. If someone finds your pet as a “stray” and feeds it for a while, it is an owner turn-in and eligible for immediate euthanasia on turn-in. So check, check, check!
And to our knowledge our local shelter still does NOT scan at all.
As Jan’s Funny Farm also said, we also encourage people to hit up shelters and vet clinics with photos and information. You can’t leave something as precious as a kitty’s life up to hoping that the chip will be picked up.
I’ve heard of the chip not being found after a few years by vets that test them when you bring your pet in for their yearly check up. I’m not trying to sound mean but I have to wonder why Sammy keeps getting loose. You can’t just assume that your dog can run free and they will be returned because they are chipped. I’m glad Sammy made it home this time. His owners are lucky.
Chips migrate. I thought this was a known fact? I know in school (Animal Helath Technology) they taught us to scan in sweeps further and further from the regular insertion point.
Was this chip not being detected because someone just scanned the insertion point and assumed the animal was unchipped or are the chips malfunctioning somehow after a few years in the system or because of that frequency being undetected?
If it’s the chip company’s fault they should get it together and fix whatever problems are going on.
I won’t even use a chip on my pets because half the time here pets aren’t scanned and the other half it’s just a quick zip down the insertion point, waste of money if no one is bothering to use it properly.
It’s is great Sammy found his way home due to an owner who didn’t just sit back and wait for the phone call from a chip scan.
Some people don’t know that a microchip must be registered with a database. So many people don’t know if they are actually registered to their pet’s microchip.
Don’t know which of the 6 US databases your pet is registered with? Go to http://www.checkthechip.com enter your pet’s microchip number and they will tell you the database you need to contact.
If you have lost your pet’s microchip paperwork:
1.) Have your shelter or vet test-scan the microchip, it will give you the microchip number.
2) Then, enter the number at the microchip search service http://www.ChecktheChip.com
3) The site will tell you which database the pet is registered with.
4) PRINT the results! You’ll need them if your pet is lost. Also, if your pet turns up at a local shelter, sometimes they want to see that you have the microchip paperwork.
Any questions, visit the “Message to Pet Owners” page on ChecktheChip.com
This is a good story for those cases where someone would have scanned, found the chip, and no one was registered.
Hope that helps!
Have your pets chipped, if lost never give up check everyday at the shelters and humane society, they depend on us humans to take care of them !!!
My brother bit a child soon after being microchipped.
The New Zealand government has recently bought in a law that all dogs born after a certain year must be microchipped.
The wee girl was here with her father cutting firewood.
She was patting him, telling him how lovely he was. And he was sitting there with a dumb look on his face, and then he turned and bit her, leaving a deep tooth hole in her back.
It was completely unprevoked, and Mumma and Dadda lost all confidence they had in him at that moment. They believe it was because she patted him near where he had been microchipped and because she wasn’t a member of our pack.
As a result my brother is now buried out in our pet cemetry on our farm and we all feel so sad we struggle to talk about it.
I don’t really think it’s all its made out to be, my brother was the pick of the litter, an amazing looking dog, both in temperament and nice looks, and he’s now growing grass in the paddock, long before his time.