Pet Microchips

In addition to spaying and neutering pets and supporting local shelters, pet owners need to prevent further overpopulation of animals by microchipping and providing identification tags for their beloved family members. Identification provides the best chances for your animal’s return if gone missing, which prevents the increase of strays. Today, statistics show that one in every three animals will become lost at least once in their life (“Pet Microchips: High Tech Protection Helps Find Lost Pets”). Providing identification is a small fee to keep pets free from the chance of entering a shelter and possibly being put to death.

Smaller than a grain of rice, microchips are injected under the skin with a small needle. The microchip under the skin puts off radio frequencies, which activate when scanned, showing the unique identification number of the animal which can be used to get their owner’s information (“Why Pet Microchips Aren't Always

Only 26% of dogs and 5% of cats who go missing are returned to their owners (“Pet Statistics). These animals are more often than not returned because they had a form of identification on them. Owners with indoor pets are not exempt from the need for identification because circumstances resulting in a pet running away are unavoidable, such as a trip to the vet or simply opening a front or back door. In addition, a microchip is no good if the owner fails to update information. Many cases of animals failing to get home who have microchips results in incorrect phone numbers and addresses. Close to 58% of all microchips are not updated properly or are not registered in any database (“Why Microchip Your Pet?”). Providing your pet with multiple forms of identification drastically increases their chance for