Most people do not give this topic a second thought until it is too late. The biggest problem of identification of lost pets is the lack of identification. You would be surprised how many pets are picked up by the animal wardens that have not been properly tagged by their owners.

But this is not the only time that proper identification could be useful. Just this past year there was a major bust of an animal auction house. What is an animal auction house you may ask? There are groups that sell animals to puppy mill breeders. The unfortunate thing is that many times the animals they are selling once belonged to families who one day went out into the yard to bring their pets indoors only to find them missing. Such was the case with one of those very auction houses back in September of 1999. Judith Reitman, author of "Stolen for Profit" that addresses stolen pets that are later sold on the black market, was in the St. Louis vicinity one week for a story/speaking engagement. While there, she heard about a local "Dog Auction" that took place in southern MO. She purchased about 13 dogs ranging in age from 8 weeks to 18 months that clearly appeared to belong to other people. The Open Door Animal Sanctuary, a nonprofit no-kill shelter located in House Springs, MO took those dogs to try and locate the original owners. They had some success, but some simply could not get located back to their orignal owners. The major proponent as being the reason in not being able to locate those owners was the fact that the dogs had not been microchipped or tattooed. The families that got their dogs back were very lucky as none of the dogs had permanent forms of identification either, but the rest of the dogs ended up having to be found new homes and the original families of those dogs are permanently in the dark as to the disposition of their beloved pets.

And then the day of publication, we were sent a copy of a story written by Staff Reporter YVETTE C. HAMMETT that was seen in the Mobile Register's 01/26/2000 issue: http://www.al.com/news/mobile/Jan2000/26-a351215a.html. The article entitled "Beagle gets a hero's welcome home in Mobile Doggone story has a happy ending" told of a young puppy that had been stolen from his yard while his family was out. After nine months of being missing and the family's final resignation that he was lost forever, they got a phone call from a Brownsville, Texas, animal shelter saying that they had the Beagle, Abbot. Fortunately for the family, the person(s) who took Abbot had not removed his collar and tag. It was only because of that a 13 month old Abbot has now been reunited with his family in Alabama. From the other side of the story, here is an article written in Texas on Abbot's story of being found: Dog has his day: Pooch gets free trip from the Valley back home to his owners in Alabama

In Hawai'i, all pets entering the state MUST be microchipped. That way no animal that gets loose is ever truly lost as there is a permanent record of who the pet is and who it belongs with. It would be really great if microchipping were to become the standard nationally/internationally. That way much less theft and loss would be experienced. Also, the animals could always be traced back to the original breeders in the cases where entire litters have been stolen by black-marketeers.

Just this last year there were several very expensive rare parrots stolen from a number of pet stores in our area. The birds were not for sale, but rather were the stores' mascots. If they'd all been chipped, it would have been much less likely that anyone would have taken the chance of stealing them as they would not have been able to have sold them off as easily. There are many good reasons for chipping pets. The ones I mentioned here were just a few.

Once upon a time the chips were placed in the hip area if I remember correctly. But,the chips had too much of a problem of "traveling". Because of that, they needed to find a new location where that was much less a possibility. It is my understanding that the chip is now implanted between the shoulder blades.

Incompatibility of the various readers and chips on the market has been a big problem. That is the main reason we had refrained from doing any chipping of our rescues before. But they now have a couple of readers that will actually read most of all the rest of the manufacturers' chips. It seems though, that the AVID chip has taken a lead internationally as it appears to be the most reliable of the chips and readers. It would be best (and this has always been our position on chips) that all the companies should get together and make their products more "universal". There is a big enough market out there that they could all have a "piece of the pie" and still cooperate with one another.

If you are not interested in microchipping your pet, then tattooing is the next best option. But when doing the tattooing, the one thing that is the most foolproof is the use of your Social Security Number. Some people have had their last names tattooed on their pets. While that is still better than using just tags on collars that can be easily lost or removed, names can be too widely duplicated, causing a confusion in the long run as to which one of the "Smith, Jones, Lee," etc. families a pet belongs to. But a word of caution. If you choose to only have your pet tattooed, you must remember that if you have a pet who gets upset with strangers, the people who find your baby may not be willing to get close enough to handle your pet in such a way as to be able to locate and then read the tattoo. The best method is still microchipping, as they do not need to actually handle the pet in order to read the chip to identify the pet.

One of the things that we tell our adoptive families all the time is that they are to have proper identification on our rescues at all times. The biggest problem is that this is not as good a form of protection for the pets as it could be. Yes, it will make immediate identification of the lost pets easier by those who mean only to help the pets get back to their homes, but if someone is stealing the pet, those forms of identification can easily be removed. There are only two methods of identification that can not be easily removed. The one being microchipping and the other tattooing.

In a perfect world, we wouldn't need to worry about things like this, but unfortunately, we do not live in a perfect world. When thinking about the safety of your beloved pets, think long and hard about what will really keep your pet properly identified just in case the worst scenario should befall your pets.

To learn more about rescue, visit the following site:

Adopt-A-Chow Rescue

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