Every pet should be tagged or chipped; the cost is minimal and the impact upon the pet is negligible with painless injection or for those with a fear of needles, collar tags.
More dogs and cats are lost in winter than at any other time of the year so it becomes doubly important that they are properly tagged and identifiable. If your pet carries an identification tag, the chances of being reunited with your pet quadruple while inserting a microchip further increases the probability of Fido or Frisky making it back home after wandering off.
Microchipping involves the painless injection of a small microchip device usually under the skin of the scruff of the neck. Once inserted, a scanner can be used to collect the information contained on the chip which will include the owners information as well as the pet’s name and any medical or behavioral issues.
Tagging or microchipping your pet may also be a legal requirement depending on where you live. Some states require a tag and for those that do not, county or municipal bylaws may impose an obligation upon the owners. In addition. indoor pets should also be tagged and/or microchipped; the reasoning that as the pet lives indoors they cannot get lost is fallcious and indeed, if an indoor pet does find themself in the great outdoors, there is a need to recover the pet that much sooner.
Whichever method you use for identification, you are relying on simple human behavior when it comes to getting your pet home; human nature being what it is, there is an automatic reaction to check the collar of a potential stray and agencies who come across a stray will automatically scan the neck of your pet to check if they have been microchipped as part of their standard procedures. In either instance, in the event of a tag or microchip not being present your pet will probably end up transported many miles away to a central pound where the chances of finding them start to significantly drop.
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