Microchips: The Finders of Lost Pets

Directors of animal shelters in the area are purring over a new microchip, which is being implanted in pets to help them get returned when they wander from their owners.

The chip costs $40 to implant and will be offered at 45 area veterinary hospitals.

The major Los Angeles shelters--the county Department of Animal Care and Control, the city Department of Animal Regulation and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals--all are expected by this week to have a computer program listing owners of animals implanted with the chips.

Implanted Between Shoulders

Here is how the plan works: A pencil-point-sized microchip containing a registration number is implanted between the shoulder blades of a dog, cat or other animal through a system similar to an injection.

When the pet gets lost and is brought into a shelter or a veterinary hospital, a worker can check the animal’s shoulders with a scanner that registers its number. That number then is matched with a computer listing of implanted animals and their owners.

Shelter directors like the system for many reasons, not the least of which is that it appears painless to the animal. The microchip--unlike tags or tattoos--also cannot be lost, altered or grown over and it can always be found in the same place.

“It won’t replace dog licenses, but it’s a pretty neat system,” said Robert I. Rush, general manager of the city Department of Animal Regulation. “It only takes a couple of seconds and zap, it’s done.”

Ed Cubrda, Los Angeles SPCA executive director, said: “In our training session, we injected the microchips into three of our mascots, two dogs and one cat. . . . There was barely a flinch by the cat. It went in that easily.

“The chip can be used on a variety of animals--dogs, cats, birds, horses and other livestock,” he said. “It’s more versatile than other identification methods. It’s difficult to hang an ID tag from a bird’s neck, for example.”

About 10,000 animals in North America and 500 in Southern California have had the chips implanted, said Mike Thomas, managing director of International Infopet Systems Inc., the Agoura Hills company that is marketing the plan.

Most of the Canadian implants were done in tests in the last year; reviews there are also favorable.

“From my perspective, this system, or something like it, offers the greatest hope of reducing the number of animals which would have to be destroyed because the owners can’t be located,” said Jim Bandow, executive director of the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies in Ottawa.

“In Canada, the claiming rate for returning lost cats to their owners is less than 4%. If we could bring that up to the rate for dogs, 50%, we would save a tremendous number of cats. We’re talking in the millions.”

The return rate for lost animals is equally low at the 15 Los Angeles animal shelters operated by the city, the county and the SPCA.

Only 12.4% of 134,092 stray dogs, cats and other animals found each year are reunited with owners. That includes 22.3% of 65,709 lost dogs and only 1.7% of 51,318 lost cats. (Cats are not required to be licensed.)

Owners who have had pets implanted with microchips think they can beat the odds and get their stray animals returned.

“If the dogs go farther than the neighborhood and do get picked up, there is some way to identify them,” said Ann Scully of Winnetka. She had chips implanted in her three 150-pound dogs--a St. Bernard, a Rottweiler and a mastiff.

Initial, Annual Fees

For peace of mind, pet owners pay not only the initial $40 fee but an annual $11 renewal charge to provide such services as changing computer listings of owners’ addresses while they are vacationing.

Shelter directors say this pet-finding plan is a significant improvement over tattooing, the most recent major identification system. It also is a helpful addition to licensing, the main pet identification method in Los Angeles since 1871.

“This department tried tattooing in 1946,” Rush said. “They got out of it because there was so much pain for the animal. Having an animal cry and scream in an animal shelter while they were being tattooed is ridiculous. There’s no way you could do it unless you put the animal under anesthesia.

“Also, there was no mandate on a national basis that said where the tattoo had to go. . . . If you tattoo a Great Dane when it’s 8 weeks old, by the time it’s 1 1/2 years old and weighs 160 pounds, the tattoo might be as long as 30 inches.”

Whatever the form of identification, experts generally agree that working with animal shelters is the best way to find a lost pet, though several groups do try to help in the search.

The Mercy Crusade of Van Nuys takes calls from those who have lost and found pets. It lists the information in a registry.

Actors and Others for Animals of North Hollywood tries to help people find their way through the shelter system, which can be bewildering: 24 animal shelters throughout Los Angeles are run by 11 different agencies, said Cubrda of the SPCA.

Mary Flint, Actors and Others executive director, said: “If an animal is picked up in West Hollywood, it is under the jurisdiction of the county; if it is found in east Hollywood, it is under the city; if it is in Beverly Hills, it is handled by the SPCA; and if it is in West Los Angeles, you are back under the city again.

“If the public thinks it’s only got one shelter to go to, it could be wrong. It depends on where the animal was picked up. Can you see how confusing this mishmash is?”

Other Pet-Finding Plans

As optimistic as they are about the possibilities of the new microchip, shelter directors noted that it may not be the final word in pet identification and retrieval.

“We will be putting in a fax machine in district shelters so that if you walk into one animal shelter and say, ‘I lost a dog, here is a picture of it,’ we can put the picture out on a fax machine instantly to all other shelters,” Rush said.

“We’re looking at taking videotapes of lost animals and putting them on cable television,” he said. “We would also like to put an impound list on cable, which would reveal the type of animal, the date and place it was found and where it was impounded. That’s got super application.”