Once you’ve decided to give a pet their fur-ever home, it’s important to provide them with everything they’ll need to live their best lives. Food, water, toys, and staying up to date on vaccinations are among key elements to being a pet parent, but it’s also vital to keep their physical safety in mind.
In 2019 the American Humane Association stated that “approximately 10 million pets are lost in the United States, and millions of those end up in the nation’s animal shelters.” Their report detailed that “only 15% of dogs and 2% of cats in shelters without ID tags or microchips are reunited with their owners.”
Make sure your pet – even an indoor one – has a collar with a current ID tag. Depending on their size, engravable tags can hold a lot of pertinent information including: a contact name, address, and phone number. Be sure to keep this information current in case you move or get a new number. We have a tag engraver machine in the store with plenty of tag options to choose from, and we will be happy to help you engrave your tag.
Though collars and ID tags are fairly common, you might not be as familiar with microchips. A pet microchip is a tiny computer chip that contains a unique ID number that matches your pet’s details that you’ve provided to a national pet recovery database. These details include your contact information: name, phone number, and so on.
Microchipping is no more painful than getting a vaccine. It’s not a surgical procedure, and doesn’t require anesthesia. The microchip is injected under the loose skin between your dog’s shoulder blades and can be done in your vet’s office, or at the regular low-cost vaccine vet clinics held at our store by Dr. Sandhu.
Dr. Sandhu’s chips meet the United States and International-Worldwide Standard. That means all ISO compliant Universal chip readers (US and International) can read them. The microchips are FREE to register (some require a fee to register, or even annual fees!) making them a highly economical choice to keep your pet safe.
Please note that microchipping is not the same as a GPS device. Although a GPS can provide your pet’s location, it can also be lost or the batteries can die. If your pet is found without its GPS or tag, then there’s no way to obtain your contact information. This is where the addition of a pet microchip becomes a game changer.
According to American Kennel Club (AKC) Reunite, “Pets with microchips are up to 20x more likely to be reunited with their owners.” Microchip today!
