Protecting A Lost Pet

Written By DiAnna Pfaff-Martin
Founder of Community Animal Network and the Animal Network of Orange County
My professional experiences managing Community Animal Network leads me to have the opinion that all companion animals should be implanted with microchips and the pet-parents contact information registered in order to protect lives. However, a microchip implanted and not registered or the information not kept current renders the life-saving abilities of the microchip useless.

For your animals’ protection always have your cat or dog wear and pet tag and “most” important” have your veterinarian perform a simple non-surgical procedure to implant a tiny a microchip under the skin between the shoulder blades.
The non-surgical microchip implant procedure costs between $35.00- $55.00 but the chip must be registered to the owner with a national database for a small fee.
Pet-parents biggest mistake is not keeping their contact information current or registering the microchip in the first place.
A microchip will protect the animal from shelter euthanization by notifying the pet-parent when an animal enters a municipal shelter. Municipal shelters across the United States are required to scan for a microchip when an animal enters a shelter, prior to euthanasia and/or at the time of adoption to insure no mistakes have been made.