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Published on 03/08/1999 All articles from this issue

Shelter uses microchips to ID pets

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By Joanne Griffith Domingue / Town Crier Staff Writer

The puppy never stopped wagging his tail. He didn't even flinch when Anun Arunnamata, a veterinary technician at Palo Alto Animal Services, used a needle to imbed an ID microchip. The chip, the size of a grain of rice, went under the puppy's skin just below the back of his neck.

Now, when the cuddly, brown, 3-month-old bundle of energy digs out of his yard or breaks loose from his leash, he can be reunited with his owner.

Using a hand-held scanner, staff at a veterinary hospital or animal shelter can read the unique, 10-digit number on the imbedded chip. Through a local or national database, cross referencing with the chip's number, the animal's owner can be found.

Microchips are a lifelong pet identification that is safe and easy, say the folks at Palo Alto Animal Services. And March is microchip month.

For $25, from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Saturday, pet owners may bring in their cat, dog or rabbit and have it "microchipped."

"It's like getting vaccinated," said Penelope Wade, supervisor at Palo Alto Animal Services. "The microchip is not in place of a collar and tag," she said, "but in addition to it. You can never have too much identification for a pet."

When a pet owner brings his animal in for the chip, he completes a registration with name, address, animal description, and the 10-digit number, and where and when the microchip was implanted.

The $25 includes the microchip, local registration, and a bag of goodies. For an additional $12.50, the 10-digit number can also be registered with the American Kennel Club (AKC) and be put into a national database, Wade said.

She strongly urges people to pay the extra for the national registration.

Recently a dog was brought in to the Palo Alto shelter.

"We scanned and came up with the number," Wade said, "but we had no record in our database. So I called the AKC. No record there, either. They contacted the manufacturer of the chip to see to which shelter the chip was sold.

"It was a local veterinarian, here in Los Altos," Wade said. In all, the dog was at the shelter for three days. But, "If it had been registered nationally, I could have had the dog home in three to four hours, instead."

Wade recommends a microchip even for an inside cat.

"Remember the Oakland fire? Several pets were lost who made it through the fire," Wade said. "Shelters were inundated with pets and had a tough time matching owners with pets," she said.

The shelter is located at 3281 E. Bayshore Road in Palo Alto. For more information about the microchip program, call 496-5971 or 496-5933, after 11 a.m.