Microchip company goes belly up

and what you need to know to protect your dog

A pet microchip company called Save This Life, went belly up earlier this month. Don’t bother googling; they shuttered their doors, unplugged their phones, and took down their website and email address.

This should earn them a long stroll on the walk of shame. They sent out no warning, leaving pet owners wondering what to do next. Pet owners are concerned. If Save This Life could disappear overnight, what’s to stop another registry from ghosting their customers? As it turns out, not a lot.

What does this mean for you and your dog?

I did a little research for the Dog Wise pack and here’s what I discovered:

A little digging can turn up some dirt

I didn’t have to dig too deep before I discovered that the pet microchip registry doesn’t have much of a system. It isn’t regulated in the United States and that’s a problem.

Most of us are familiar with pet microchips, tiny computer chips no bigger than a grain of rice that are inserted just under our dog’s skin. They definitely save lives. There’s no doubt about it. First introduced in 1989, they took a few years to catch on. These days almost every responsible pet owner microchips their dog. Doing so allows veterinarians and animal shelters to help locate owners of lost dogs, simply by scanning for the presence of a microchip.

The scanner display shows your dog’s individual number, but because there is no national database, the person scanning has to plug that number into several of the most popular registries in order to find the dog’s owner.

To understand why that matters, I’ll use my own dogs as an example:

We planned a flight out west last fall and hired a house sitter for the pups. Part of vacation prep was to make sure both dogs had current information with their microchip registries. I knew we’d changed one of our cell numbers and I wasn’t sure if the company had both mine and my husband’s email address.

But then I couldn’t recall what companies my dogs were registered with. That’s somewhat embarrassing because I’ve had them both for several years now. It gets worse; I lived under the vague notion that once my dogs were microchipped I didn’t have to do anything. Every great once in awhile I’d think about the chips, but anything in the least which way techno makes me want to go eat a donut.

As someone who loves dogs so much that I write about them, this feels silly and irresponsible even to me.

So, I put it off and put it off until vacation was just one week away. Then, in a moment of great psychological strength, I seized the microchip by the horns. I got in touch with my dogs’ rescue groups. They gave me all the information I needed. As it turns out, one of our dogs, Shelby, is registered with Pet Link and Arlo is registered with Home Again.

I signed on to each website and updated all our contact information.

Here’s something more to chew on:

• There are more than 40 microchip companies in the United States and they all maintain their own separate databases. Unlike your social security number, there is no national database for microchip numbers and while some share information with each other, most do not. This creates a problem when a veterinarian or animal shelter finds a dog with a microchip number from a lesser known company.

• Updating your pet’s registration can be confusing. If you lose the paperwork or the collar tag, you could have trouble locating the company.

• There are no laws, rules, or regulations for companies like Save This Life from closing up shop and ghosting all the pups in their database.

Organizations like the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA), World Small Animal Veterinary Medical Association (WSAVA), and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), have worked tirelessly to pass legislation, but to date there is still no national database for microchips.

What you can do to reconnect with your dog’s registry

Photo by Madeline Bowen on Unsplash

If you’ve forgotten where your dog is registered or you’re a former Save This Life customer, you can take your dog to your veterinarian office, animal shelter, or even the police station to have her scanned. Once you have the 9,10, or 15 digit number, you can search in the most common databases or re-register that number with a new registry.

The AAHA (American Animal Hospital Association) offers an I.D. recovery service, what they call a Microchip Registry Lookup Tool. This is helpful for anyone who has found a lost pet or who is unsure what company their dog is registered with.

I test drove the database by just putting in the microchip number and it referred me to the correct database for my dogs; Home Again for Arlo and Pet Link for Shelby. It does not give out personal information, but it gets you to the proper registry.

When you update your info, upload a mugshot

That’s one of Arlo’s mugshots. The other two show his body more clearly. Think identification, not Cutest Dog Contest. Photo-shopped pics are not necessary or even desirable.

Here are some tips for taking a mugshot:

• Make sure the lighting is good and the photo is clear

• Take a photo from your dog’s eye level

• Be sure to get an unobstructed view of your dog’s body and face, especially the eyes

• Limit background distractions

Most companies offer additional space to add your dog’s physical and behavioral characteristics. I added that Shelby has black spots on her pink paw pads and that she’s a little skittish around strangers. Arlo has splotches of white hair on his chest and he smiles when he feels nervous.

The AKC (American Kennel Club) now offers a service they call AKC Reunite. They charge no annual fees and offer lifetime protection so something definitely worth checking out.

We all hope our dogs never go missing, (one of my worst doggy nightmares) but in the event it does happen, a working and up to date microchip number can save his life.

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