Pet Microchipping

In the past, pet microchipping was done only by a few animal shelters that were adopting out cats and dogs and that wanted to ensure that the pets would not get lost again, once more ending up at the shelter. Thus, the invention of a pet microchip enabled shelters to have an animal permanently tied to an owner’s name, address, and also telephone number. For pet owners, the pet tracking microchip is a wonderful invention that all but guarantees that their animals will be recognized as being owned by someone, thus foregoing the ghastly fate of being destroyed due to overcrowding at a local animal shelter.

Pet microchips in the United States are usually manufactured by one or two big companies and the microchip - pet lovers confirm – is about as small as a grain of rice. There is no lingering discomfort to the animal at the insertion site and instead microchipping pets has been celebrated as the one surefire way of reuniting pet owners and pets when collars become ripped off, tags fall off or are unreadable, or if an ear tattoo becomes unreadable due to injury or scarring.

Updating my pet’s microchip is an easy process that usually only requires a phone call to the pet microchipping agency. You will need to know your membership number or tag number and then the agent will be able to look up your account and make whatever address and telephone number changes you need. Additionally, you will also be able to transfer ownership of the animal in a similar fashion, giving the new owner’s information to the agent to process.

It is important to understand that pet microchipping is not a foolproof methodology for never ever again loosing a pet, but considering the alternatives, at this point in time pet microchipping is the safest way of getting the best results overall. Yet did you know that even though pet microchipping is such a simple procedure, debates for pet microchips as well as against microchips for pets rage online? Some have stirred up controversy on pet microchips simply by claiming that the prices of pet microchip technology were artificially inflated, thus allowing substandard pieces to be inserted in animals. These pieces may frequently cease working and a regular pet microchip scanner will not be able to pick them up. Perhaps not surprisingly, these claims incorporate a lot of conjecture and very little – if any - concrete proof.