Losing your beloved family pet can be something of a harrowing experience. However, there are a number of ways to ensure that if your pet does go missing, finding them isn’t an impossible mission. Traditionally, pet owners would fit their dogs or cats with a collar around their neck, providing details of the pet’s name, address and perhaps even the phone number of its owner.

This would ensure that if the animal was found, the finder would know to whom it belonged. Nowadays, however, there is a growing trend among pet owners to fit their pets with a microchip implant, which allows them to be identified by kennels and animal shelters and returned in the quickest time possible.

How do microchip implants work?

Microchip implants are tiny electronic devices that are placed under the skin of pets – commonly dogs, cats, rabbits, horses and birds. The microchip works as an identification tag for the animal, containing a unique ID number, which is also given to the owner, and can be found using an electronic scanner. If a lost animal is found by a kennel or animal shelter, they are “scanned” for a microchip. If a chip is found, the shelter will then be able to establish who the owner of the pet is and return them in the quickest possible time. Not only does this save a lot of stress for the owner, but it also saves the shelter the costs of housing and feeding the lost pet.

Advantages of using microchips in pets

In addition to helping reunited pets with owners in the quickest time possible, microchips have also proven to be useful in the cases of animal ownership. For example, if there is a dispute over the ownership of an animal, for example if it is alleged that said animal has been stolen, the relevant authorities will be able to use the microchip to determine who the animal’s owner is. Also, if a pet has been neglected or cruelly treated, police will be able to identify the owner of the pet and bring them to justice.

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