A pet owner’s heart jumps at the thought of losing a companion animal. Imagine, then, how Deborah Robinson of Pasadena, Md., felt last month when she received a call from Anne Arundel County Animal Control saying her dog had been found after being missing nearly two years.
The discovery was possible because the white spitz could be identified through a silicon microchip the size of a grain of rice that had been implanted in the scruff of its neck.
Like many other area animal rescue and control groups these days, technicians at the Millersville, Md., facility routinely check strays with a special scanning device that emits a low-frequency radio signal. If a microchip has been implanted in the animal, a code is revealed by which a pet’s owner may be located.
As many as 40 lost or stray dogs a day turn up at the facility, the majority of them lacking collars or tags with clues to their origin.
“In America alone, every two seconds, a pet is lost,” says Lee Titus, director of the Canine Enforcement Program of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which routinely uses chips called AVID — for American Veterinary Identification Device — for each of the 1,200 dogs in service. Each dog also has a tattoo in the left ear and a collar tag, but collars get lost, and a tattoo can’t always be seen because hair can grow back inside the ear, Mr. Titus notes.
“We have a great deal of time, energy and tax money invested in these [dogs trained for security and detection work],” Mr. Titus says. Losing a dog for four or five days four years ago persuaded his agency to use the chip.
“It’s like any other shot, and the chip, which has no power supply and no moving parts, is designed to have an operating life of 25 years,” he says. “Once injected and anchored, a thin layer of tissue forms around it.”
Dogs with the AVID chip are enrolled in a company-run computerized tracking system called Pet Trac, much like the LoJack system designed to find missing or stolen cars. AVID is made by California-based Avid Identification Systems Inc.
Another chip, called HomeAgain, is made by the Minnesota-based Digital Angel Corp., a pioneer in livestock identification products. HomeAgain links users to the American Kennel Club’s Companion Animal Recovery service for identification. The two companies agreed to cooperate about eight years ago to produce scanners that could read both of their codes on the same 125-kilohertz wavelength.
“Be sure the public is aware that if a vet implants a microchip in an animal, that the animal be registered with the vet and also with the company online,” advises Jody Huckaby, director of the D.C. Animal Shelter, operated by the Washington Humane Society under contract.
“It happened not too long ago that a dog came in and was scanned. The vet hospital that had done the implant years ago was called, but the [dog’s owner] had moved. The vet had no record of [a forwarding address] because the person had failed to register with the company.”
A microchip in its generic form is made up of two parts inside a hermetically sealed glass capsule small enough to fit inside a hypodermic needle: the chip itself and a miniature antenna that transmits the radio code. The AVID chip has a nine-digit numeric code divided by asterisks; HomeAgain uses a string of 10 numbers divided by letters, according to Mary Metzner, director of shelter operations for the AVID company.
Chips normally cost a minimum $20, with an additional one-time registration fee per animal of about $15. A scanning device costs $100 or more.
“You call the 800 number that is on the back of the scanner owned by nearly all animal control, humane societies and veterinarians. They will be given either veterinary information or the owner’s name,” she explains, cautioning against any mistaken impression that the system is similar to the Global Positioning System. Satellites are not involved.
“If someone calls us with a HomeAgain number, we will transfer calls automatically to [Companion Animal Recovery] to get dogs back home as soon as possible,” says Mrs. Metzner, who reports that company technicians are trying to perfect a scanner that can read several radio frequencies.
This latest move has come about with the introduction of another chip and scanner that works only on 134 kHz and is said to be used mostly in Europe. Many veterinarians and animal protection groups in this country are concerned because the scanners are not compatible, creating a real danger that owners cannot be traced in case of emergency.
A recent issue of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association reports on lawsuits filed by the owner of a pet that died. The owner, the suit claims, had not been made aware of the different kinds of chips on the market.
A further problem with the scanner incompatibility arises when people travel with pets to countries — such as European Union members — that require microchip identification, says Dr. Raymond Phillip of the District’s Friendship Animal Hospital. The animal hospital implanted 300 HomeAgain chips in 2003.
“Microchipping saves lives,” asserts Scotlund Haisley, executive director of the privately funded Washington Animal Rescue League in Northwest. “It just makes all the sense in the world, and it doesn’t mean not using other ways of identifying an animal.”
The organization, which uses AVID chips, makes them mandatory in all animals up for adoption and includes the price in the total adoption fee of $100 for a dog and $60 for a cat. “We’ve had zero complaints about the chip,” he adds. Anyone taking advantage of its free spay-neuter program can purchase a chip for $20 and an additional $15 for registration.
Digital Angel expects that its veterinarian-implanted chips will number 1 million this year, according to Kevin McGrath, company president, who says the future capsule ideally will contain multiple standards that can be read anywhere in the world.
A biothermal chip the company has in the final testing stage will tell a pet’s temperature in addition to identity.
“We [also] intend to introduce a hand-held scanner for under $100 to allow a pet owner with an aging pet to scan it and see if the animal has good health,” he says.
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