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[quote Craig][quote graylocks]but what factors went into your decision to do this?
Ummm, what factors go into your decision not to? Cost? Pain?
Craig
ignorance really. my original info-less hit on chipping was that it was done for expensive breeds that might be stolen. after a bit of research, and the posts here, i get it that it's so a shelter can call YOU if your pet is lost. that makes a lot of sense.
true story that a friend, whose dogs and cats are now chipped, just told me. she was in her vet's office discussing the prospect of chipping her puppy. a man came in and asked the vet to scan the dog he had with him. his dog had been missing for 6 months and he had recently seen this dog chained in a junk yard. he was pretty sure it was his dog but the people refused to let the dog be checked. so, he had stolen the dog and brought him in to be scanned. the vet obliged him. it was his dog. the vet assured my friend the episode was not staged for her benefit. LOL!
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graylocks,
Glad to know that the man found his dog. Let's hope no law suits have followed him. Ugh!
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I think that my next dog will get a tattoo on his belly instead of a chip.
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...only if your next dog is a Mexican Hairless.
[quote MacMagus]I think that my next dog will get a tattoo on his belly instead of a chip.
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A family in this county had their dog stolen from their back yard. It showed up at a shelter three months later with collar and tags. The shelter scans regardless of collar/tag anyway so they were able to returned the dog to the correct owner.
If I'm remembering the article correctly, it mentioned a universal scanner that would read all manufacturers chip protocols.
=wr=
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I recently got my cat chipped after he had more adventure than any of us cared for.
any shelter worth its fleas is going to have a good microchip scanner. if you had your whole life to wiggle out of a collar, don't you think you could manage it at least once? moreso, i got the microchip because most shelter animals have a depressingly short time before they're put down. if your pet is lost, you need to check with shelters every couple of days just to make sure that they're not in line to be put down. however, if your pet is chipped you can be certain that shelters will take the extra time (if necessary) to make sure that you get your pet back simply because there is that much more hope.
unfortunately i didn't compare microchip programs. It looks like HomeAgain was used and i do despise the idea of a yearly fee for storing so little information. i'd at least want the option of paying for a lifetime membership.
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A friend's 9 year old Dalmation jumped the fence running scared from the July 4th celebration. He was picked up by a shelter who scanned his chip then called up my friend's ex-husband. The dog was absolutely happy to be home again after an overnight stay at the shelter.
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I don't have a dog, but my cockatoo, Precious, is chipped.  "who are you calling a chippie?"
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The shelter I adopted my cat from required chips before releasing the animals to new homes. She made the rounds of shelters twice, once as a kitten and once as an adult, being chipped both times. The second round, no one bothered to verify that she already had a chip, so she's now got Home Again on one side, and I think Avid on the other. Confuses my vet no end, as their database can hold one chip but not both, so she has to be listed under a second dummy account.
On the whole, I do think chipping is a good idea, but the implementation is pretty lousy. Separate scanners, poor communication to maintain current records, etc all make the good idea not as useful as it could be in practice.
One thing some vets do (my previous one did this) was check the chip at every visit as a reminder to update info and to verify the correct animal is being treated. Rather like barcodes on hospital wristbands. That's a smart use of the chip.
Racer, I know you foster, do you do it for PAWS or one of the other groups? My fuzzball is a former resident of Cat City. 
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Some information:
The ONLY information the vet office keeps is what number goes to what pet. When the shelter scans the pet they get a number and they call the chip manufactuer who tells them who that chip is registered to. IF you don't send in your information and pay your fee, then the information that comes up is the place that bought they chip. If that is the vet office, they can tell you who it is. I've personally had experience with a cat chipped by the NYC ASPCA and they could not track back who the cat was adopted to...so the person who found the cat kept her.
I personally prefer AVID as their chip readers will read the chips of other manufactueres (there are only a handful at this time) Its a BETTER idea to get the ISO chips as that is the standard oversease and what you will need if you decide you are moving to England fromt he US...but at the moment there is no standard in the US (this is probably changing)
As far as the cancer scare....this is not, IMHO, a legitimate reason to NOT chip a pet. There are exactly TWO reports in the scientific literature reguarding masses found in the general areas the chips were located. You CAN get a thing called an injection site sarcoma, though they are not nearly as common as they were 20 years ago (or as common as the internet would have you beleive) and MANY injections are given to animals in the intrascapular area by old skool vets (the rest of us have moved locations to the sides of limbs) and chronic inflammation is one of those things that can in some cases induce a tumor. However, IME, with what is probably thousands of chips at this point, I have not seen a problem. Out of many thousands (millions?) of chips implanted over the past 25 years in avariety of species there have been TWO reports of tumors, and there has not been a definitive link made between those masses and the chips that happened to be in the general area.
People need to understand that things like cancer are diseases of older animals, and we are REALLY GOOD at getting dogs and cats to live past the age of 8 or 9 (which used to be OLD....now its the new 40 for pets) and animals do not live forever anymore than we do. Stuff happens and that stuff does not always have some sort of pinpoint definitive cause.
NOT chipping your pet because he MAY win a lottery and get a chip induced tumor is silly, IMHO--I have seen far more pets be returned to their owners from shelters or neighbors or wahtever. Many of those pets might have ended up euthanized instead of just causing a fine. Your pet can't lose that chip the way it can lose an ID tag on a collar, and the procedure is reelatively painless.
And yes, my previous cat and dog were chipped, and Kiko the current kitty is chipped.
Tattooing is also a reasonable alternative BUT you need to find a vet with a tattoo machine (we used to have one) Most vets who have these now are the cow guys sincce you stillneed to ink the ears of cows who have gotten Brucellosis vaccines (IIRC, its been a while) Tattoo machines are harder to keep up since they only get used once a year or something...the chip is easier to do. Your dog DOES need anesthesia for a tat...and if you move, how do you update that information? Many shleters DO tattoo animals, but its generally some sort of symbol to indicate the animal has been spayed, if it is a female.
Jackie
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