Hempstead shelter’s pets to come with free microchips
September 9th, 2008 Posted in Pet PicturesDogs and cats adopted from the Hempstead Town animal shelter will now come with identification microchips embedded under the skin so that, if an animal gets lost, it can easily be reunited with the owner, town officials said yesterday.
Trained personnel at the town shelter in Wantagh use a syringe to insert the chip under the skin on the back of an animal’s neck. The chip is coded to link to the owner’s contact information in a national registry, which can be updated as needed.
Murray added that any pet owner can have a dog or cat “chipped” at the Beltagh Avenue shelter for a $25 fee. Accompanying the chip is a lifetime registration that ensures “that whether a pet gets out today, tomorrow or 10 years from now, he or she can be brought home safely.”
Hempstead officials said they had found a few private animal shelters on Long Island that use the chips and charge a fee plus an additional cost for the lifetime registration.
Huntington officials said they’re starting to consider such a program. North Hempstead Town is already equipped to scan such chips.
Susan Fowler of Bayer Healthcare said more than 6 million pets go missing each year and wind up in shelters, and only 22 percent are reunited with owners. Just 3 percent of dogs and 2 percent of cats in the United States are microchipped, she said, and only half of those owners complete the registration process.
Tags: animal shelter, animal shelters, cats, dogs, dogs and cats, lifetime, Pet, pets, united statesRelated posts
Tags: animal shelter, animal shelters, cats, dogs, dogs and cats, lifetime, Pet, pets, united states
