If your pet were lost, you would want him or her to have a ticket home. Although collar tags are an easy and inexpensive way to identify lost pets, they can easily come off or be removed. Microchips offer a permanent form of identification – a unique number that cannot be altered.
All pets adopted from SJRAS are microchipped and we offer microchips to the public’s pets as well. For the reduced cost of $40 your pet can be microchipped and registered in a national recovery service database, increasing his chance to be identified and returned to you quickly and safely. Microchipping is available Monday through Friday during business hours. Please call ahead on Saturdays to check our availability.
Microchipping may also be offered at SJRAS public events such as Pet Photo with Santa, Step for a Pet, Dog Washes, and Vaccine Clinics. No appointment will be necessary for chipping services on these dates. Service will be first come – first served.
How is a pet microchipped? Does it hurt?
Similar to your pet getting a routine shot, microchips are implanted in the fat and tissue under your pets skin. The shot for most animals goes totally unnoticed, and those that notice it experience only the pain of getting a needle. Microchips are smaller than a grain of rice, so it’s quick, and your pet suffers no long term effects from the shot.
What information is needed, and is the information kept private?
Once your pet is microchipped, you will fill out an enrollment form. You will supply information about the pet (name, age, sex, color, medical conditions) and information about who to contact should your pet ever be found (you, an emergency contact, your vet office). The information you supply is then entered into a database that is accessible 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This information is not sold or given to anyone unless it is directly necessary to get your pet home to you. The information you provide can be updated as often as you wish. Simply placing a call to an 800 number or visiting the website allows you easy access to provide the most current information to help your pet find it’s way back to you if he/she ever becomes lost.
How microchipping works…
Stray pets that are found by Animal Control or citizens will be scanned for a microchip upon intake at an animal shelter. They can also be brought to a veterinarian to be scanned for a chip. When scanned, your pet’s unique chip number will appear in the scanner. The shelter or vet will be able to contact a national database with the chip number. The company will verify that the pet matches and are able to access your contact information, as well as any medical information about your pet or emergency contacts in case you are not available. They will then be able to notify you with the location of your pet so you can bring them home safely as soon as possible.
See for yourself how being microchipped saved the life of a tiny little dog……
One HomeAgain client has 3 Chihuahuas and lives in upstate New York. All 3 dogs are microchipped, and wear collars with tags as well. They were visiting relatives in New Jersey over the holidays one year, and the smallest of the 3 dogs managed to slip out of a tiny hole in the fence. Frantically the family searched for the dog through woods and fields. After 36 hours having not found him, the owner’s sister received a call from the local animal shelter.
Someone had found the little dog shivering in their back yard. They had tried to call the phone numbers on the tags the dog had on, but they where the owners home phone numbers – in upstate New York – where no one was home because they were on vacation in New Jersey. Before leaving for vacation, the owner had put his sister, who he was visiting, on the dogs profile as an emergency contact. So when the little dog was taken to the local animal shelter they scanned him for a microchip, called the database, and got the owners contact information. When they were unable to contact the owner, the shelter tried the emergency contact information and reached the owners sister. Dog and owner were happily reunited, thanks only to that tiny microchip the owner had implanted and his keeping the dogs’ profile up to date.