There is apparently a bright sign on my house that attracts runaway dogs that I can’t see so I find them on my porch every few months.
This was one of those mornings. The dog was well kept and obviously had a collar recently but it was no where to be found. So I checked with a few agencies to see if anyone had reported a missing dog and when I came up empty, took him to a local rescue to see if he was microchiped. Luckily he was and they got ahold of the owner and all was well.
In the meantime I was speaking with one of the workers and she said at least half of the dogs they get in there were pets who weren’t microchiped and whose owners they couldn’t track down.
Too many people assume that a collar is enough. It’s not. Please microchip and keep the information on there current.
Yes yes yes.
You never know when they’ll get out, or what circumstances will separate you from your pet. Like the major flooding we’ve had here. Every now and then I’ll hear of a pet that ran off after a car accident or some such. Had a case in my neighborhood a couple of months ago where the dog got out during a burglary.
The good news is a lot of shelters seem to be microchipping the animals, though the new family then has to activate it (it isn’t prohibitively expensive, it is usually a one time fee ), we have two puppies and a kitten, and we had them all done.
I’m another one who microchips her pets. The Houston SPCA includes microchips with free lifetime registration upon adoption: the new owner only has to remember to register their animal. Another low cost option - microchips $15 - is through VETCO: https://www.vetcoclinics.com/services-and-clinics/microchips.
VETCO locations: https://www.vetcoclinics.com/services-and-clinics/clinic-locations-and-schedules/
Yes, if one is truly devoted to one’s pet, then installing a microchip is a smart idea. However, it’s reported that some municipal shelters don’t bother to check the microchip status for orphaned pets brought to their facilities. We know what happens to orphaned pets whom remain unclaimed at municipal shelters. There is a recent story about a shelter that has a 99% kill rate. People speculate that it’s unlikely that 99% of the “guests” at that particular shelter were strays or ferals; some of those animals had to have been lost companions whose owners were searching for them, which means that the owners of pets with microchips were not contacted. I’m sure that some, maybe many, of those euthanized pets had been abandoned by uncaring owners or people who neglected to update their contact information…but 99%?
There are STILL places that don’t do this? Unbelievable. Heartbreaking.
That 99% number is just… I can’t even put it into words. How horrific.
The rescue group that brought my pooch up from the south did chip her. And activate under my name. Grateful.
I don’t see why more thoughtful owners don’t. Maybe this thread will draw some continued attention.
We did it with our first dog, back in 2001, so there’s no excuse for not doing it. It’s been around for a long time.
FWIW, even though the fee is very nominal, there are often local places which will microchip for free (sometimes as a package with free spay/neuter)- you just have to seek them out.
It seems that the municipal and county shelters in North Carolina had a bad record in this regard. The story linked below states that the shelters had been euthanizing unclaimed animals after only three days, but has since changed their operations such that unclaimed cats are now sterilized and then released. For owners searching for lost pets, I hope that remains the case today. Several years ago a shelter in Durham NC killed a woman’s cat immediately after it was caught in a trap on a neighbor’s vacant property next door, even though the local county shelter had a 5-day holding policy for animals.