<p>Nine years ago we adopted one of our goldens from a legitimate rescue group. After we got her we noticed that she had a tattoo near one of her legs. I tried running the number just to see if I could solve one mystery of her life…but nothing.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any ideas as to why someone would tattoo a dog?</p>
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<p>I’m still trying to figure out why human beings would tattoo themselves</p>
<p>I believe more often the ear is chosen, but apparently microchips can not always be located.
Is this a purebred dog?
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<p>My best friend’s dog has a tattoo in her ear, but she was a purebred from overseas (Poland??). They rescued her when her first “family” decided that she was too much to handle (a puppy… imagine that!). </p>
<p>One of our dogs from the Humane Society several years ago had a tattoo- I think it was because she was fixed. </p>
<p>Did you try asking the rescue group?</p>
<p>ETA: EK, I don’t trust a company that says “tattoo’s” when they mean “tattoos”</p>
<p>Yes, she is a purebred. All of our dogs are microchipped immediately. She also has a microchip from the rescue group as well. The tattoo isn’t a microchip…the only thing that I can think is that she was a laboratory dog. But she was abandoned in the desert.</p>
<p>As for why people would voluntarily tattoo themselves…I don’t get it either. When I was starting radiation the doctor made three dots on me to pinpoint the area to be radiated. Three dots…all of them stung.</p>
<p>My female rescue dog has two dots tattooed on her abdomen – the shelter vets do that to mark a dog who has been spayed, That would have been done when the dog was already anesthetized for surgery, so probably the least painful part of the experience. (I actually adopted the dog before she was spayed, because she was too young, but part of the adoption agreement is a promise to have the dog spay, and the cost of having it done at the shelter is included in the adoption fee.).</p>
<p>Can you describe the tattoo? There is a world of difference between someone tattooing an identifier or important info on a dog and someone with a tattoo gun getting drunk and deciding Sparky needs a lightning bolt on his flank to show how fast he is.</p>
<p>^^^LOL.</p>
<p>Many years ago we adopted a dog from the county animal shelter. All the dogs adopted from the shelter were tattooed before they left the shelter with a new family. There was no such things as microchips back then!</p>
<p>Some tattoos are used as forms of pet id:</p>
<p>"Identification</p>
<p>Your animal will require an electronic microchip or a readable tattoo that has been applied before 3 July 2011 with the same code as the one documented in the passport."</p>
<p>(For entry into the EU)</p>
<p>Ms. Ellebud dog has decided that she is modest today. I was able to see for a second a series of numbers. Not a telephone number, not a street address. It has at least 5 numbers. Several years ago I looked up farm branding and couldn’t find a match or a similarity in branding.</p>
<p>Whatever this tattoo means or meant our love for her will ever change. I am curious (by nature and in lots of different areas. I know that a big part of me wants to know that she didn’t suffer before we got her.</p>
<p>Again, I’d ask the rescue. There’s a good chance they know her backstory and can tell you. </p>
<p>Her backstory is simply this: She came from riverside animal shelter. She was found in the middle of the desert dying. She had rocks in her stomach because she was starving and tried to stop the hunger. A call was made to the rescue (Golden Retriever rescue of greater Los Angeles) who came out and took her. She was spayed immediately, along with a few other procedures (getting the rocks out of her stomach) and we applied for her, we passed the home inspection and we got her. Mr. Ellebud said that if we had lost her we would never have stopped searching for her.</p>
<p>I worked a while back at a federal lab. One of the labs did animal research, and the dogs had numeric ear tattoos. A tattoo on the leg would seem harder to locate.</p>
<p>“If you are interested in fostering or adopting a lab beagle, be aware that they come with some unique challenges. They will not be accustomed to life in a home and will not have experience with children, cats or other dogs. They will not be house-trained and accidents will happen (although they will learn quickly). Many have gone directly from a commercial breeder to the lab, and have never felt grass under their feet or even seen the sun. They will have been fed a special diet formulated for lab animals and may have difficulty adjusting to new foods. They will be unfamiliar with treats, toys, bedding and may never have walked on a leash. They will have lived in cages with steel wire floors and may have inflamed or infected paws. They may be initially fearful of people and may have other phobias from a lifetime of complete confinement. They are likely to have been surgically “de-barked” by the breeder and have an ID number tattooed in their ear. Although these beagles are considered healthy, very little information is disclosed about their origin, medical history or what kind of testing they were used for.”</p>
<p>The web site “K9data” has detailed information on almost all registered goldens. Sometimes the breeder will tattoo the microchip number on the dog as a back up ID. For example: <a href=“Pedigree: Mistybrook Tosca”>Pedigree: Mistybrook Tosca;
You might ask your vet to run the number through their microchip database, but perhaps it’s best left well enough alone? What would happen if the dog had been stolen and the breeder wants it back? That would be tough on everyone. I think she has a good home now.</p>
<p>Goldens would never be used as laboratory dogs, they would die of stress within a month. Beagles are used almost exclusively because they live well in large groups and their genetics, with many representations of human disease, are well established. </p>
<p>Large-scale organized studies tend to use beagles. There are smaller studies not as well funded or regulated that seek subjects from secondary animal “dealers”. These dealers tend to get their livestock from a variety of sources. An animal is an animal, as they say.</p>
<p><a href=“http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/metro/2013-12-07/protestors-walk-end-georgia-regents-universitys-dental-experiments-dogs”>http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/metro/2013-12-07/protestors-walk-end-georgia-regents-universitys-dental-experiments-dogs</a></p>
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All right - clearly meant to be an identifier, probably put on by some old school place that hadn’t converted to microchips yet. I would check with your vet to see if there are any databases that would use the format, but otherwise I would not worry about it - you know who she is, and she has been chipped, so the tattoo is no longer really necessary.</p>
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If you can read the numbers, then she was sedated when she got that tattoo - no dog would sit still for that! Afterwards, the discomfort would have been more than that from a microchip (probably) but not much, and not enough to be upset about.</p>
<p>My dog wont even sit still to have his nails trimmed.
Not even one foot at a time!
It was probably done when they were fixed.</p>
<p>We adopted a female dog from our local animal shelter, and she also has a tattoo. We joked she must have been in prison and was somebody’s ■■■■■ (bu-da-dum) but the real reason is that it signifies that she is spayed. As the people at the shelter told us, when a male is neutered it’s obvious, but not for a female dog. Makes sense.</p>
<p>Years ago, we had our dogs inner thighs tattooed as microchipping wasn’t around. We used their OFA number. Orthopedic Foundation for Animals. You could google them and ask them.</p>