Countywide : Electronic I.D. Collars Missing Pets

Is Rover prone to break for daylight whenever you take him for his morning walk?

Well, the days of placing an ad in the paper or frantically posting signs at the supermarket when you lose your pet may be numbered.

Now, your dog, cat, bird, tortoise, even snake, can be implanted with a microchip that can be electronically activated by a scanner, enabling animal shelters and hospitals to identify the lost animal and return it to its owner.

The Orange County Animal Shelter recently began using the Infopet animal recovery system, the brainstorm of a Canadian real estate lawyer.

Infopet works much like motor vehicle registration. Each animal is assigned a 10-digit identification number that it wears on a silicon chip the size of a rice kernel embedded beneath its skin. Participating Humane Societies and animal control shelters use electronic scanners to identify the impounded animals, then can determine the pet’s owner by calling the central registry in Los Angeles at (800) INFOPET.

No more going to the animal shelter only to find that Rover’s been dispatched to doggie heaven.

“You always hear about stories like that,” Infopet founder Jack Greenberg said from his Toronto office. “I have a dog who’s been lost before, and I know what it’s like to run around looking for him.”

On Wednesday, Infopet spokespup Rottie, a 3-month-old Rottweiler, and Mission Viejo veterinarian Ed Folkers demonstrated the implant technique before a crowd at Laguna Hills Mall. Folkers put the brave pup on a table, scratched his ears, then slipped a large needle beneath the dog’s skin, releasing the implant. One short yelp from Rottie and the two-minute procedure was over. Folkers said the implant does not pose a risk to the dog’s health.

Folkers then ran a hand-held scanner along the dog’s body, and when it reached the base of its neck, ticked off the registration number and flashed it onto a video screen.

Some animal lovers were impressed.

“We’re definitely going to get one,” said Dan Di Giacomo, owner of a pet shop at Laguna Hills Mall that volunteered Rottie for the demonstration.

Currently, 72 animal shelters and 260 veterinarian hospitals in California, Missouri and Massachusetts belong to the Infopet registry, officials said. The system has implanted chips in more than 10,000 pets and recovered 30 lost animals since it went into operation in Canada two years ago. It is in widespread use in California, where some Marin County shelters are implanting animals before putting them up for adoption.

“So far, they haven’t found many pets, but we’re trying it to see how it works,” said Nila Kelly, Orange County chief of veterinarian services. “Hopefully, our having the technology to return animals will tend to encourage implants on less easily identified animals like cats and exotic birds, which people tend not to put collars on.”

Infopet costs $40 for the one-time implant, then $11 every year for registration fees. Pet information, including the owners’ names, veterinarian and medical history are updated every year.

One can’t help but wonder, if there’s an Infopet, why not an Infochild ?

Several people have asked whether the scanner system could be adapted to track missing children, but right now Infopet officials say they doubt the idea would go over well.

Said company spokeswoman Lindy Harton: “I think people would think it was too much of an intrusion by Big Brother.”