Kristen Thompson, customer care tech, scans a cat in search of a microchip to identify the pet's owner. (Post / John Leyba)

The Pros

The advantages of inserting a microchip in your pet are numerous:

• As we have already said, the procedure is quick and causes no pain for your pet;
• It is highly effective in returning pets to their owners when they go missing;
• The presence of the microchip and the information contained on the chip register demonstrates who owns the pet in the event someone else takes your missing animal in and decides to give them a “new home”;
• Microchips are usually used for cats and dogs but they are also eminently suitable for a wide range of other pets and animals, including livestock;
• The chip reader information is always clear and will never fade unlike a tattoo;
• Chipping your pet is permanent unlike using a collar and tag; and
• Shelters and the police will automatically scan a found pet to see if the animal has a chip.

Chipping your pet dramatically increases the odds of being reunited with them if they go missing compared to traditional forms of finding a missing animal.

This is not to say that there aren’t any drawbacks to the micro-chipping your pet.

The Cons

• Some microchips are not readable by different types of chip reader, so even if your pet is chipped, unless the shelter is operating the appropriate type of reader, your pet’s microchip may not actually be detected and read;
• Microchips are not visible and there is nothing to say that a pet has been chipped unless there is an additional identifying tag on their collar, though collars and tags may be lost as well – this leads to the possibility that your pet may be “adopted” by the finder who may be blissfully unaware you own the pet;
• The owner must keep the register updated with their contact information and frequently there are costs involved in maintaining the entry and for making any changes to it;
• The chip can migrate within your pet’s body which may make it impossible to read with a scanner;
• Microchips are not GPS tracking devices, so they do not give the animal’s position if it goes missing though many people assume this is in fact the case;
• The technology is not widely known to the general public who may therefore not know that the pet should be scanned in the first place – this means it is essential to still tag your pet and also to make it clear that there is microchip inserted; and
• When a pet does go missing, owners with an animal which has been chipped tend to assume the pet will be returned to them because of this.  As a result, they neglect to take action to locate their pet themselves, such as calling the shelters and placing missing posters around the neighborhood.

Asset Tags by Maverick Label – Mark Trumper

Today, the idea of ordinary men and women running a marathon, followed by a lengthy bike ride and punctuated by a cooling couple of miles swimming is not so far-fetched!  My brother-in-law completed three Iron Man competitions last year and only quit this year because his wife has put her foot down.

The growth in outdoor and extreme sports activities has increased the need for vital personal information to be carried by participants.  Sports requiring high levels of exertion create situations where participants need assistance and sometimes urgent medical intervention as the human body is pushed to extreme limits.  It is not only the high exertion levels which create high risk for those taking part; many long distance or extreme sporting activities take place in areas which are remote or without readily available medical assistance on hand making and the difference in treatment for a heat victim with diabetes and one without can mean the difference between life and death as one simple example.

Many sports ID label kits use some form of wrist band to carry personal identifier and medical information but personally, I cannot stand a wrist band attached when I’m running; it’s just a mental thing with me but fortunately there are alternatives. The shoe pouch for instance, provides a simple and cost effective means of carrying my identity and contact information safely and securely attached to the laces of my running shoes; it doesn’t interfere with my running and I don’t have a wannabe fashion icon strapped to my wrist which makes me feel uncomfortable.

Other variants include ankle straps, id chains and you can easily find sports apparel suppliers with built in pouches and pockets designed specifically for carrying identification and medical information and still provide the functionality and sport utility you need for your sport enjoyment and performance.

Take look at some of the law enforcement statistics regarding lost and stolen property:

• a tagged item is 37 times more likely to be returned to the owner than an untagged one;
• 92% of crimes involving stolen property result in a conviction as a direct result of tagged items being found in the possession of the criminal involved;
• a tagged pet is returned to owner 90% of the time while an untagged one less than 10% of the time
• more than 80% of convicted thieves surveyed have responded that they are deterred by tagging of property;
• 100% of convicted thieves surveyed responded they would choose to steal from an untagged property than one where tagging was practised; and
• tagging is estimated to save $17 billion annually in insurance costs due to reduced payouts and premiums for policyholders.

Fortunately, the overwhelmingly vast majority of missing children are located and very quickly with the bulk of cases of missing children resulting from losing a child at the store or fair through to more involved family squabbles and disputes.  Children are generally not exposed to a significantly higher risk of coming to harm in such cases but the impact upon parents and guardians cannot be underestimated and this is vastly increased for the child in question.

Locating a missing child and reuniting them with their family is an urgent and desperate necessity and yet so many children have nothing to identify them, not even a telephone number for home.

Identity bracelets provide a convenient and secure method of ensuring your child can be identified and more importantly has contact information for you or whoever is caring for the child in question.  Many identification kits are available as part of a package of missing child prevention programs run in tandem with government agencies and voluntary organizations.  Identifying your child and getting in contact with the parents is only part of the equation when it comes to reuniting a child with their family; children who have medical conditions for instance requiring regular or sporadic intervention such as diabetes or epilepsy can be carried at all times.

Fortunately, ensuring your child can be identified and you can be contacted immediately they are located is something that you are not likely to need in practice.  Missing children are a common feature in our psyche simply because of the huge apparatus that exists to locate missing children when this emotional and traumatic incident occurs, however it is a rare occurrence that does not affect most children while growing up though the concern is whether it will be our own child who is lost or missing next.

Post provided by Maverick Label, a custom labels printing company

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.