Microchip info - check your local situation

[Deleted]

For anyone not reading the Bubby thread, here is some info I found regarding Australian microchipping.  It's scary.  You might want to check what your deal is.  (If it can be called a "deal".  I call it a rort.)

Microchips

*  Microchips help but do not guarantee that you will get your cat back, they can fail, migrate and can be removed
*  Vets are not obligated to scan for a microchip and not all of them have access to the multitude of microchip databases
*  Members have reported that microchip registries do not always share information with each other, and as a result, pets have been re-homed with an up to date microchip
*  Some vets are obligated by law to surrender a found cat to the local council pound even if it is microchipped and are not allowed to attempt to reunite the cat
*  Animal rescue organisations may not verify chip details for surrendered cats

It's disgusting.  I knew about the multiple registries but had no idea about the other nonsense rules.

[kritter]

Here vets, shelters, and rescues respect the microchip and do everything possible to reunite a pet with it's owner. Some may remember earlier this year when a cat that had been found, sent to the city shelter where he was scanned, and then reunited with his owner who had moved to Washington D.C.

Whenever a pet is found and listed on out Nextdoor Neighborhood website, the first question asked is if the pet has been taken to a vet to be scanned for a microchip.

Chips can migrate and that does cause a problem. All pets released from any shelter here are required to be microchipped and spayed/neutered. No exceptions. The problem is that a lot of owners don't update the chip information when they move. The rescue that I fostered for always kept the first contact on the microchip with her information in case the owner never updated their information. That way her cats would always come back to her and she would work to find their owner.

Australia has a way to go with their microchip process.

[Deleted]

Jul 27, 2017 2:55:04 GMT kritter said:

Here vets, shelters, and rescues respect the microchip and do everything possible to reunite a pet with it's owner.

Yeah, that's what everyone told me when I was ringing around yesterday.  It's what every pet owner here believes.  But it's not necessarily true.

How many chip registries do you have?  Just the one?  If more than one, do they cross-reference?

What about states other than yours?

[kritter]

I haven't checked how many chip registries there are now but here the shelters etc. were using Home Again and 24 Pet Watch. I do know there is now a national pet chip registry that supposedly pulls from all the different registries into one date base.

I don't know what other states or even other cities in Texas do. We are a very animal advocate city. The shelters/rescues work together and along with animal activists put pressure on the city and state government to do the right thing. Texas was the first state to pass a law making animal abuse a felony punished by jail time and cases are prosecuted.