For the second time today I read a story about microchipping. The first one was crushing. Target, the female German Shepherd mix, a decorated war dog back from Afghanistan and recently on Oprah, was accidentally euthanized. The dog escaped from owner Sgt. Terry Young’s fenced yard. Sgt Young saw online that the dog had been impounded over the weekend, so waited until Monday to go pick her up. That was a fatal mistake. Target, a stray in Afghanistan, saved dozens of soldiers after blocking a suicide bomber from entering a building. See the rest of story over at John Woestendiek‘s Ohmidog!
Then at this late hour I saw a tweet from Steve Dale about Bo, a dog that was stolen five years ago and was found hundreds of miles from home, returned because of a microchip! See the video from Steve Dale’s Pet World.
This is one thing we can all do to give our dogs a fighting chance. Is your dog’s microchip information up-to-date?
Please, please, also get the microchip scanned at the vet every year during the animals' yearly checkup!
It is rare for a chip to fail, but it CAN happen. Luckily they are guaranteed by the manufacturer, in my dog's case they paid for x-rays to determine that the original chip was indeed in the proper location, just no longer working, as well as for the new chip and the office visit for all of that. But you don't know if it's working if you never get them scanned!!
This is a great suggestion, Kim! A simple confirmation each year that your dog remains protected by that microchip can make a world of difference. Thank you for sharing that with everybody:)
Not sure if my comment went through…hope I'm not double-posting. Gus is up to date…but we will definitely have it checked the next time he's at the vet!
I just read the the animal shelters in New York City are no longer taking lost dog reports and will not go look through the shelter to see if a lost dog has been brought in. The shelters will still check for microchips and ID tags and will contact the owners if the pet has these types of identification. Without it, the only hope owners have is to go to each of the city's shelters themselves to look for the pets – which can be legally euthanized in as little as 48 hours. While this is currently only happening in New York City, with the financial pressure shelters are under, can it be long before this new policy spreads? Another reason to have your pet chipped. Kim's suggestion is also a good one – the chips sometimes migrate. We'll be having Buster and Ty's checked before we head out on our next road trip!
Wow, Amy, thanks for passing that on to us – jeez, just the other day I read NYC isn't picking up strays, now they're not even attempting to return lost dogs?? WT…How does that even fit with the whole program on doing better for dogs – so much for the Mayor's commission working to help gvt make better decisions, although I'd like to hear about the kinds of solutions they might be looking at. This is wrong – on so many levels.
Fundraising everywhere is a necessity and yet, donations are running dry in many areas. We have three shelters in this area alone that are closing or are on the verge of doing so. Whoa – pets can be euthanized in as little as 48 hrs?? THAT is ridiculous and you're right about policy like this spreading. It will, and quickly. Guess we'd all better get prepared to not only fight it, but to look for community solutions. Thanks for this news, Amy!
With microchip the pet owner need to wait and see if anyone come up with missing pet info and take him or her to a local shelter or veterinarian. They need to have necessary scanner to extract the info embedded in microchip. Till then, the pet owner is powerless in the recovery process. But now Spotlight GPS pet locator you need not to worry about your Pets whereabouts. You will be 24/7 aware about your pet through email, text message or internet. Also, they provide 24/7/365 recovery services with the help of AKC Car companion.