We use microchip technology to help identify animals that may not be wearing identification tags. Reduced to the size of a grain of rice, this capsule-shaped chip holds a unique number that traces back to a registered owner.
The TROVAN brand microchip is painlessly injected into the animal's neck, just under the skin, prior to adoption. The unique chip number is recorded along with the owner's name, address, and phone numbers. This information is kept in the shelter's database and is also sent to Infopet headquarters where a nationwide registry is maintained. Every animal that comes through our doors, dead or alive, is scanned with a wand or passed by a scanner which senses the chip and displays the ID number. Animals are scanned once when impounded and again prior to euthanasia.
Our shelter only scans for TROVAN microchips but is able to detect the presence of some of the other chips manufactured by AVID and Shearing-Plough. Contact your veterinarian if you would like your animal 'chipped.' Although we cannot recommend TROVAN as being better or worse than other microchips it is the only microchip which can be easily and routinely located by our staff.
Microchips are a great supplement to identification tags, but they are not a substitute! If someone without a TROVAN scanner finds your animal, they will not be able to trace it to you unless it has current license or ID tags. For additional information on Microchips see what the Humane Society of the United States says.