Dog and Cat Microchip Implants to Begin

Facing criticism over a two-year delay in a program to save pets, Los Angeles’ top animal control officer announced Wednesday his agency will begin to implant microchips in dogs and cats at city shelters in June.

The city will implant the device in each cat or dog adopted for a $15 fee, and will perform the procedure for any resident who brings in a pet for $25.

The program, approved by the City Council in 1998, would allow the city to more easily match pet owners with their animals through the use of implanted microchips the size of a grain of rice in the neck of each dog and cat adopted from city shelters.

The microchips allow immediate identification of the owner when an electronic sensor is passed over the implant.

“It will reunite animals with their owners,” said Dan Knapp, general manager of the city Animal Services Department. “If an owner ever loses a pet and it comes to the shelter, we will know who it belongs to.”

Previously, a lack of staff members and computer software prevented the Animal Services Department from beginning the microchip identification program, Knapp said.

“We couldn’t assure there would be the staffing to do the chipping,” Knapp said. “But we have been able to hire extra staff and we now have the software, so we are ready to begin the program.”

Knapp’s comments were made in an interview at Wednesday’s meeting of the City Council, which had been scheduled to vote on a motion demanding an immediate start to the program.

With Knapp promising an end to delays, the council postponed action on the measure, sponsored by Hal Bernson, after The Times reported on the two-year delay.

“They have just been dragging their feet,” Bernson said Wednesday. “It’s about time that they get started.”

About 47,000 dogs and cats were put to death last year by the city because they were unclaimed, not adopted or had medical problems.

The city will contract with American Veterinary Identification Devices to provide chips and scanners and to oversee the program.

A spokesman for the private contractor said about 3 million animals nationwide have been implanted with the chips, and about 7 million worldwide. A private veterinarian charges $25 to $45 for the implant.

That was a primary reason the council approved the microchip program, which is reuniting hundreds of pets with their owners every week in other cities. In Ventura County an average of eight pets a week are reunited with their owners because of the microchips, officials said.

A sticking point in Los Angeles was a determination by Knapp’s agency that the implanted microchip represented a medical procedure. Knapp said the California Veterinary Medical Board requires that medical procedures be supervised by a veterinarian.

But new state legislation requiring shelters to hold stray animals for six days instead of three required all of the city’s 10 registered veterinary technicians and one chief veterinarian to spend their time on other medical work, Knapp said.

Recent staffing increases approved by the council have allowed Knapp to boost the work force to five veterinarians and 23 veterinary technicians, enough for the microchip program.

Also, the department has obtained software to manage the program, Knapp said.

The Times quoted retired department workers and volunteers in January who suggested some of the delay may be attributable to concerns that a $15 fee for the implanted chips could discourage pet adoptions.

Bernson said he will press for an independent audit of Knapp’s department to look into complaints of overcrowding and delays in improvements.

“We need to find out what is wrong over there,” Bernson said.