Pet Ownership: Micro Chipping Domestic Animals

Pet micro chipping is a new main stream technology in domestic animal care. With programs popping up throughout the World, micro chipping has taken a new turn in control over animal shelter populations through a safe recovery and return process involving technology advances. As a dog or cat owner, understanding the importance of micro chipping a domestic animal may ensure the safe and prompt return of the animal in the event of loss.

The American Kennel Club, also known as the AKC, is responsible for furthering the advancement of a program known as the Companion Animal Recovery program. Within this database, the names, address and phone numbers of millions of domestic animal owners are stored. The success of the animal recovery program lies in the ability of the AKC to track and identify owners of recovered pets through the pet's micro chipping which is placed under the skin of the pet by a trained micro chipping professional.

Micro chipping technology is as varied as the companies that provide the service. However, each micro chip is formatted to comply with the requirements and information stored by the American Kennel Club's Companion Animal Recovery database. When the micro chip is placed into the domestic animal, a scanner can read through the skin, to decode the chip serial number, and determine who the owner may be. Through this technology, dogs, cats and various other domestic animals are promptly returned to the owners, usually within a few hours. Best of all, the process of micro chipping a domestic animal can be performed at most local shelters, is relatively painless to the animal and only takes a few minutes to complete.

The Companion Animal Recovery program, upon notification of a recovered animal, will attempt to reach the animal's owner immediately by phone. When successful, the coordination of pet retrieval and recovery takes place. When unsuccessful, the CAR staff will work with the individual in possession of the lost animal to locate an alternate phone number for the owner or provide information regarding local shelters who may accept the animal into haven.