Microchips are tiny transponders, about the size of a grain of rice. They consist of a miniaturized coil and a memory circuit encased in biocompatible glass, and are small enough to fit in a hypodermic syringe. Your veterinarian or other technician implants the microchip just under the skin between the shoulder blades, and the whole procedure takes only a minute or so. The chip's memory circuit contains a unique number registered to your cat, which can be read by special scanners found in many veterinary offices and shelters.
Pros and Cons:
- Permanent. The chip cannot be dislodged, once implanted, and has a lifetime of 75 years.
- Quick--takes less than a minute.
- Does not require an anesthetic.
- The cat is not bothered by it once implanted.
- May deter theft, or at least make theft easy to prove if the culprit is caught "with the goods."
- Implanted chips are tamper-proof.
- Does not disfigure like a tattoo.
- More expensive than tattooing or tags.
- Many people would not know to take a found cat to a veterinarian or shelter for scanning.
- Although chips are becoming standardized, there are still a couple of registries.
While each owner must decide for himself or herself which method might be best, after researching for this article, I am personally inclined to take a "shotgun approach" with a combination of microchipping and collar with tags. The microchip would be the source of a permanent record and the tags would give the owner's name, phone number, and the fact that the animal is chipped.
Or a Sinister Plot?
Not everyone would agree with me. Some see the microchipping of pets as the precursor to a more sinister governmental plan: human microchips so "Big Brother" can track our every move. Here's what a student at the University of Indiana has to say about pet microchipping:
- Life is sacred and should be protected from technological interference. Apparently there is no legislation protecting the rights of the animals to be microchip-free.-- People who lose their pets should be responsible for finding them. I can't believe biological monitoring is legal. I understand a need for bar codes on merchandise, but not living beings.
I cannot help but think some covert organization is involved. Maybe it's the FBI or the CIA.--
"Opinion", The Indiana Digital Student: Campus Newsletter
A bulletin board discussion brought out this theory:
- While chipping pets is a fantastic idea and one that has its merits, I have to think about the consequences. In this age of retina scanners, thumb scanners, voice print scanners and all the other James Bond type of devices it is only a matter of time before we all have a chip implanted in our forehead. Eventually we won't have anything left to call private. As I said above the President already carries a GPS (global positioning satalite)(sic) chip to keep track of him for national security reasons, before long we will all have to carry one.
Suite 101 Discussion Board
