Microchip Registration Database

Microchips help lost pets to be reunited with their owner as long as it is registered with the chip manufacturer and/or one of the chip agnostic pet recovery service such as at veripet.org. An implantable chip is more secure than a collar tag because the chip cannot be faked, moved between pets or lost as can a collar tag. A typical chip manufacture's pet microchip registration costs $25 to $100 per year and it is incumbent upon the owner to maintain the accuracy of the database in the event of a move or change in contact information. Veripet does not charge for pet registration and lookups for found pets.

To remind pet owners to check and update their information, American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) and the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) have established August 15 as Check a Chip Day.

Registering and keeping the owner's contact information up to date is the most problematic problem facing the pet microchip industry because without up to date contact information a lost pet is less likely to be returned to its owner and possibly euthenised. According to an Ohio State University study, the main reasons owners aren't found for lost pets included incorrect or disconnected phone numbers (35.4%), owner's failure to return phone calls or respond to letters (24.3%), unregistered microchips (9.8%) or microchips registered in a database that differed from the manufacturer (17.2%). At a, mostly yearly, subscription cost to the owner each microchip manufacture maintains their own registration database. However, these registration databases only hold information related to chips they manufacture requiring a pet finder that does not know who the manufacture is to search multiple sources in order to report a found pet.

Veripet has automated procedures in place to help ensure a pet's owner contact information remains up to date so a found pet can be quickly reunited with its owner.

Chip manufacture's registration databases only hold information related to chips they manufacture requiring a pet finder that does not know who the manufacture is to search multiple sources in order to report a found pet. There are free registration databases available such as that at Veripet's Rabies Reader page and is chip manufacture agnostic. Veripet Rescue Association's registration is free for the life of the pet. Veripet also maintains a web page and database of microchip manufacture's recovery phone numbers at their Rabies Reader site that will provide recovery contact information based solely upon the chip number. Additionally, if a pet is registered with Veripet, their system sends email and SMS notifications containing the finder's contact information to the pet owner without exposing the pet owner's data to the finder; they do not maintain a recovery hotline.

The American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) provides a recovery database of last resort accessed with thier lookup tool that will redirect a user to the manufacture's recovery desk but not supply owner information or notifications to them. AAHA works only with those manufactures and recovery services that provide a 24x7x365 hot line where a pet finder can report a found pet. They do send notifications to their own registered user base in the form of emails for lost pets.

Additional support for animal control and shelters is provided by Veripet's utilization of an Avid 3B Mini-Tracker microchip scanner and its capability to interact with Veripet's mobile app called Rabies Reader available for free on both the Apple App and Google Play stores. The Rabies Reader app acts as a conduit to connect a scanned microchip to Veripet's microchip registration database. A successful scan of a chip results in a myriad of information being presented to the animal control officer or shelter volunteer including the chip manufacture's recovery phone number, the status of the pet's rabies vaccination, owner and vet contact as well as allowing immediate notification to the owner that their loved pet has been located. The information is displayed on the user's mobile device and the scanner's LCD display.

What is a Pet Microchip?

One of the most effective means of protecting your pet from being lost or stolen is microchipping them. The size of a grain of rice, a microchip is a permanent electronic way to identify a pet. The American Humane Society estimates over 10 million dogs or cats are reported lost each year. Unfortunately, a large percentage of those lost pets are never returned to their owner. Studies show that cats are 20 times more likely to be returned to their owner and dogs returned 2.5 times more than unchipped dogs.

The chip is activated by a microchip scanner that stimulates its electronics to produce a unique code assigned to your pet. Most shelters and veterinarians have these readers and can scan the pet and contact the owner if the pet is lost. Once obtained, the code can be looked up by using Veripet's Rabies Reader app or manually entering it using Veripet's Found Pet functionality which will immediately notify its owner by text and email that their pet has been located.

Each microchip carries a registration number that is associated with the pet to obtain owner's name and contact information. This information is entered into the chip manufacture's pet registry database and a service offered by them (at addtional cost) to hold the data. Veripet's a microchip registration and recovery notification is and always will be FREE. We employ non-intrusive and privacy protected procedures to ensure a pet's owner contact information remains valid and available. There could be a number of reasons for the failure to reunite a pet and owner but top reason is the inability to identify and contact the owner because the chip was not registered, the registration fee was not paid or the owner contact is out of date (moved, new phone, etc.)

The responding scanner or tag code can also be manually entered at other sites to obtain the chip manufacture's contact and through them, the owner will be contacted, the most notable being the American Animal Hospital Association's pet lookup tool.