Pet Microchips

Hands down, microchipping is one of the best ways to protect your pet.

A microchip is inserted by your veterinarian using a sterile, preloaded applicator. There’s no anesthesia. Even better, the only maintenance is registering the chip and keeping your address up to date by logging onto an online database using your private password.

When you microchip your pet, ask for an International Standards Organization (ISO-compatible) chip. If you relocate your pet outside the U.S., an ISO microchip or tattooing is required. Air Animal strongly recommends ISO chips for all pet relocations—even those inside the U.S.—as an extra layer of protection for your precious pet.

Once inserted, owners must complete the registration with the chip manufacturer listing service. Pet microchips are not GPS tracking devices. They are permanent IDs that can’t fall off or be removed. When cats are microchipped the return-to-owner rate is 20 times higher, according to a study reported by HomeAgain.com.

Dr. Walter Woolf, Air Animal founder and president, explained why microchips are important. “Air Animal was scheduled to move a black Labrador to Australia. The boarding kennel brought the dog to the vet for the second round of blood work before the move. The vet called us and told us the dog didn’t have a microchip. We asked the kennel to bring the other black lab they boarded to the vet for examination. The kennel had mistakenly switched the dogs.”

How they work
Microchips use RFID technology. Scanning the chip reveals your pet’s unique ID number and the chip maker. When the number is called into the chip maker, the microchip service contacts the owners. That is why it’s vital to keep your contact information up-to-date with the microchip service. Collars and tags, especially rabies tags, are still important. Pet tracing using the rabies tag numbers is possible but not after hours or on weekends when veterinary offices or animal control offices are closed. Chip services are open 24 hours, every day of the year.

“We are believers. That is why we provide microchips for every corporate pet transport and our private pet shipping clients at no charge,” Woolf added.