national check the chip
Posted By SLCo Animal Services
August 13, 2018
August 15th is National Check the Chip Day:
There’s nothing worse than worrying about a pet who has gone missing. It’s losing a loving member of your family and worrying about their wellbeing and whereabouts.
Nationally, 6-8 million cats and dogs enter the shelter system each year. Many of these animals are not stray animals, they are lost and often shelters have no way to reunite them with their owners. One way to prevent this unfortunate fate for your animal is through Microchip Identification.
Microchipping is a quick, safe and simple procedure and causes little discomfort. The benefits of microchipping in terms of identifying a lost animal and reuniting them with their owner far outweigh any minimal, momentary discomfort. Each microchip is about the size of a grain of rice and is inserted between the shoulder blades. A registration number that corresponds to information you have provided on file about your pet is coded to the chip. If your pet becomes lost a microchip scanner can read the chip and retrieve the necessary information needed to contact you and get your pet home safely. Think of a microchip as a permanent ID tag that cannot be lost or misplaced.
If you have moved or changed your phone number, it is very important to make sure that you contact your local shelter as well as the microchip company so that it is easily traceable, and your pet can safely be returned home.
If your pet is transferred to a new owner, the new owner must ensure that their contact details are updated to the pet through the microchip company and their local shelter.
Salt Lake County Animal Services is the only municipal shelter in the nation that provides free microchips for all pets served in the community. Over 2,600 pets were returned to their owners in 2017. This was in large part because of their microchip. Both adopted and owned pets that are licensed in our community receive a free microchip in hopes that if they ever get lost, they can be returned to their homes as fast as possible.
In 2017 we microchipped 6,200 animals in our community.
Hopefully your pet will never get lost, but in case it happens, by making sure that your pet has a microchip, you are giving yourself and your pet the best chance of a speedy, happy reunion. Bring your pet into 511 W 3900 S, between 10 AM- 6 PM, Monday – Saturday to get microchipped.