microchips

In our tidbits ,that you will find in a mailbox near you  (soon!) I have a written a short article about some of the issues with Microchips. About a week after I wrote that article some friends called to tell me about a special investigative report that was going to be our one of our local channels.
Basically, it very fairly laid out the differences between all the chips and basically gave a “Buyer-beware” and do your research warning to people.
I do not think that it will do much damage to the sales of chips. I didn’t see anything false or mis-leading about this report. I’m not sure if it was produced locally or one of those national investigative reports that are produced and then sent all over the country. I really do not think it matters.
What matters is that microchips are being scanned. If we could create some kind of state-wide or county wide rules for the procedure of how to deal with microchips I would be happy.
If a humane society takes in stray dogs in a county they are in my mind just as responsible as any animal control to scan a dog for a chip and contact the owners. Its our responsibility as owners to make sure that these companies have our correct information.
20% is a horrible number and that is the number of pets returned to their owners in our county. Nationally its about 16%.
I personally want some kind of reassurance that if my dog Casey gets out of my house during a thunderstorm and ends up at the humane society up the road that he will be returned to me.
What can we do?
We can have a county wide microchip month after we get assurance that the chips will in fact be read. We can invite our commissioners  and show them that as a community we are trying to create a positive outcome. and we can watch that number change of dogs returning home to their families.