Microchipping 

Once a pet is lost, the odds of being reunited with the owner are poor.  According to the American Humane Association, only about 17% of lost dogs and 2% of cats ever find their way back from shelters to their original owners, and almost 20 million pets are euthanized every year because their owners can’t be found.  Having a form of ID can make a huge difference in whether you and your beloved missing pet will ever be reunited.

Tags, collars, and tattoos are a good start, and are certainly better than no ID at all, but they aren’t 100% dependable.  Tags can be removed, fade, rust, or get scratched and be impossible to read.  Collars can tear or slip off.  Tattoos can fade or be covered up as hair grows. A microchip, however, provides a unique, unalterable, permanent form of identification for cats and dogs.  Although primarily used for identification, they have the potential for many other uses as technology expands, such as storing a pet’s medical records. 

Microchips contain a number that is linked to a national database. If your pet is found, any animal hospital, shelter, or humane society can use a microchip reader to read the unique ID number contained on the chip.  The veterinarian or shelter worker then accesses the database by phone or computer, and enters the microchip number.  Information about the pet, including the owner’s address and phone number is stored in the database.  Microchips can’t be lost or damaged, and they last a lifetime. 

Microchips are not new.  In fact, the Marin Humane Society in Northern California became the first shelter in the country to implant the chips in all animals they put up for adoption, in 1989.  Many humane societies, shelters, and veterinarians have urged pet owners to implant their pets with the devices and the procedure has indeed become more common in the U.S.  In fact, over 2 million pet owners in the U.S. have had the procedure.  The US, however, lags far behind Britain and Canada in percentage of pets being microchipped. 

The microchip itself is about the size of a grain of rice, and is made of an inert material (soda-lime glass).  Microchips contain no batteries, silicon, or any substance that can hurt the animal.  They are implanted painlessly, in a procedure nearly identical to administering a vaccination.  Implanting the chip takes about three seconds.  No anesthesia is needed.  It’s simple, rapid, routine, and painless.   The chip is injected under the loose skin between the shoulder blades.  It doesn’t cause any allergic reactions, and it won’t degenerate over time. 

At Manhattan Cat Specialists, the cost of inserting a microchip is $60.  The fee is a one-time fee; the chips never need maintenance or replacement.  There may be a small fee to enter your pet’s ID number in a database, and there may be another small fee if you change your address, phone number, or other contact information.  These fees are minor, compared to the cost of making flyers, calling all over town, and taking time off from work to find a lost pet.

Many cat owners think that because their cat is totally indoors, a microchip isn’t really necessary.  However, apartments in which there’s high traffic - repairmen coming in an out, children, relatives – run a higher risk that someone will leave the door hanging open long enough for kitty to bolt.  A heavy storm, flood, or other natural disaster could cause some damage to your house, causing your cat to run away in fear.  No matter how closely you watch your kitty, there’ always a chance he or she could get out, and without ID, reclaiming him or her may be very difficult.

Nearly every day, somewhere in the country, a pet is reunited with its owner because of microchips.  Shelters now routinely scan all pets that are admitted to the shelter.  Most shelters have a policy of holding a pet for a finite period of time to see if it’s going to be reclaimed, before euthanizing.  Sadly, many pet owners have had the heartbreaking experience of discovering that their pet was turned into a shelter, only to be euthanized because they didn’t find their dog in time.  Microchips have the potential to eliminate this possibility.