City Fails to Implement Microchip ID System for Pets

Two years after authorizing a plan to implant identity microchips in pets, Los Angeles city officials have yet to implement the program--even though it could potentially save thousands of animals from being euthanized.

The program, mandated by the City Council in January 1998, calls for electronically tagging all dogs and cats adopted from the city’s six shelters. Animals that wind up back in a shelter could be quickly and easily identified and the chip would serve as proof that they had been sterilized and vaccinated.

At shelters nationwide, hundreds of animals a week are being reunited with their owners because of the electronic tags, according to companies that produce the devices.

But in Los Angeles, officials say shelters are too understaffed and computers too outdated to get the program underway.

Councilwoman Laura Chick, whose Public Safety Committee endorsed the proposal, expressed anger that city officials “didn’t come back and report that they had not implemented this program.”

“They got a direction from the council to do this and agreed with the direction, and yet I am learning from a reporter that it has not been implemented,” Chick said. “That simply is not responsible government, in my opinion.”

Dan Knapp, general manager of the Department of Animal Services, said in a memo to the Animal Regulation Commission last March that the department could not spare staff or funding for the microchip program because of state mandates requiring the city to hold animals for a longer time--up to six days, from three previously--before they can be killed.

But those mandates have not stopped other departments, including Ventura County’s, from running similar programs, officials there said.

Knapp did not return calls seeking comment. Other department officials gave differing reasons for the failure to implement the policy.

Jackie David, department spokeswoman, blamed it on the department’s outdated computer system, which still requires a high degree of paperwork.

“Our system is basically a dinosaur. We’re in the stone age,” she said.

Another department official blamed the delay on lack of staff.

Bob Perino, senior systems analyst, said that computer software to manage the program is available, but that the department doesn’t have the staff to implant the chips and record the owner information. Within the next few months, however, the department plans to update its computer system.

Retired department workers and volunteers, speaking on condition of anonymity, suggested another reason for the delay. The City Council action authorized the department to charge $15 for implanting the chips in pets being adopted, in addition to about $70 in fees for neutering and vaccinations.

But the additional fee might discourage pet adoptions, the volunteers said.

“Adding another fee makes everyone a little nervous,” said one.

The identification system involves the injection of a transponder the size of a grain of rice under the skin in the scruff of the animal’s neck, similar to a vaccination. Each chip is encoded with a number unique to the animal and linked to a database identifying the owner. The chip can be read with a scanner similar to those at supermarket checkouts.

Millions of pets across the country have had the tags implanted in the last few years at shelters, humane society facilities and veterinarians’ offices. The program has resulted in the return of tens of thousands of lost pets to their owners, often within hours of their disappearance, advocates say.

Ventura County has implanted the chips in more than 15,000 animals adopted from its shelters over the last five years. An average of eight pets a week are returned to their owners from Ventura shelters, said Kathy Jenks, Ventura County animal regulation director.

“It’s been a great program,” she said, adding that it takes very little extra time. “It’s all computerized. I don’t see that it would add any more than two minutes total time. It’s just like giving another shot.”

The department already checks all pets arriving at the shelter with a scanner to determine if they have an identifying chip. Scanners were provided for each of the city’s six shelters by the city’s contractor, American Veterinary Identification Devices of Norco, said Michael E. Burns, the company’s director of shelter programs.

When a chip is found, a shelter worker can call a toll-free number to have the service track the animal’s identification.

While implanting chips is fairly easy, David said, recording owner information is more complex.

Burns, however, said the process is as simple as having the adopting owner fill out a card that is mailed back to the Norco company.

David said the city wants the ability to track animals in its own computer system, which would allow officials to monitor, for instance, how many times a pet returns, which could indicate a violation of leash laws.