Microchipping your pet
Article donated by Dr. Paula Short, Tasman Bay Vets, Mapua
Veterinarians have been implanting animals with microchips for many years but a lot of people are only now becoming aware of this due to recent changes in dog control laws. The Dog Control Act requires that all dogs first registered on or after 1st July 2006 be implanted with a microchip. It also allows for Councils to microchip those dogs classified as dangerous or menacing.
Microchipping your dog is a quick and generally painless procedure. The microchip itself is tiny, being about the size of a grain of rice. It is implanted under the skin between the shoulder blades with a special applicator. Once there the body walls it off with fibrous tissue so it cannot migrate throughout the body. Each microchip has its own unique number and this number is entered onto a database with the owner's name and contact details.
Once implanted the microchip can be read by passing a special scanner (a bit like a supermarket checkout scanner) over the area. Once the scanner has read the unique number on the chip the owner's details can then be retrieved from the database. While it is easy to see that this will be beneficial to the Council when impounding dogs it has a couple of other worthwhile spin offs for dog owners.
A major benefit is that if your dog goes missing and is taken to a veterinarian, the veterinarian can scan the dog and retrieve your details from the database and therefore quickly get in touch with you regarding your pet's treatment. We have been in this situation several times already this year where unidentified pets have been brought to the clinic after road accidents. Another benefit is that a microchip allows for unquestionable identification of you as the owner of the animal. If it is stolen you can easily prove your ownership status. Sadly, this situation has arisen in the community this year when a Schnauzer was stolen from a vehicle.
Microchipping is available for cats, horses and other animals, although they
will not be able to be registered on the National Dog Database run by the Council,
instead they will continue to be registered on the Australasian Database. While
it is not a legal requirement to microchip these animals, it may give you some
peace of mind to know that they are easily identified should anything happen
to them.