Microchips to identify of your pet!

For questions about microchip registrations, use this link to Avid's Website or use the following contact information:

AVID Identification Systems, Inc.
3179 Hamner Avenue
Norco, California 92860
800.336.AVID - Telephone (United States)
909.371.7505 - Telephone (International)
909.737.8967 - Fax
avid@avidid.com - E-mail

Yes, it is a computer chip. No, you cannot track your pet if it has a microchip, but an animal control agency, shelter or Humane Society can scan the pet and identify that it belongs to people who will be looking for it.

The shelter who is holding your pet will contact the microchip manufacturer, who will contact the veterinarian or clinic who injected the chip. A number of years ago, I had all my pets microchipped. It was a brand new process my veterinarian told me about. She said it was better than a tattoo, because it could not be altered or removed, and also better than a collar because it won't come off your pet for any reason.

Many families with pets find one day that their pet is missing. The process of locating a lost pet is very time consuming and sad. Only around 10% of pets which are lost are ever reunited with their families.

Pets can travel great distances from home when they are lost, and often their families don't think to look in outlying area shelters when searching for their pet. Often, people work during the days and are unable to visit shelters during their open hours. It takes a great deal of time to adequately determine whether or not your pet is in the hands of a shelter or good samaritan.

The virtue of a microchip is that because the shelters are given the scanners for free, they are able to identify your pet without you. Of course it doesn't cover all the eventualities of losing a pet, but it certainly increases the chances of recovery. It also safeguards your pet from being destroyed by a shelter once the animal's stray time is over. Not all shelters do adoptions, and sometimes the screening process for animals would prevent your pet from being considered "adoptable".

While in theory microchipping is an accurate and desirable method of safeguarding your pet when you aren't able to watch, not everyone is cooperating. Not all shelters are scanning pets, and most of the general population doesn't even know there is such a thing as microchipping or if they know about the process, they don't understand how it works. If people who find lost pets and keep them at their homes to avoid turning them over to a shelter don't know about microchipping, the pet's chance of finding it's family is diminished because private citizens will probably not be buying scanners.

Until Microchipping has become the standard method of identifying pets, a collar and tag is still a valuable way of locating your lost pet.

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Have you been following Adam's story?
With the story of Adam, the burned kitten, in the news, so many in his community and individuals across the country are reminded of how easy small animals who should be beloved pets, can instead become victims of human cruelty. Forgotten Felines of Sonoma County know all too well the suffering of these helpless creatures. Read about Adam and his recovery.

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