



“A few states require shelters to scan but do not require them to actually microchip,” Granskog said. “New York has introduced a bill every year, including this year, that would make microchipping dogs mandatory.” But the efforts so far have failed.






“They are not LoJacks or GPS devices,” said Aimee Gilbreath, executive director the Los Angeles-based charity Found Animals, which has donated some 200,000 free chips for area pets since 2005. “If you as a pet owner don’t keep the information up to date in the database, the microchip becomes pretty useless.”

“It absolutely does save animals, but we have to go with what we have,” said Wendell Bowers of Los Angeles’ East Valley Animal Shelter.



Microchips do have critics. “We’re opposed to the mandatory microchipping of owned dogs. That ought to be an owner’s choice. This is like saying we have to tattoo our kids,” said Judythe Coffman of Rosamond, president of the California Federation of Dog Clubs.

Stormy Hope, vice president of California Responsible Pet Owners’ Coalition in Los Angeles, said in an email that chips can cause cancer or tumors, they can migrate from the spot where they were injected, and the risk isn’t worth it since there are other types of identification available, such as tags and tattoos.

Chips do occasionally move or migrate, especially if an animal is very active in the first hour after an implant. Proponents say such chips can still be detected; it just means scanning a wider swath.

In 2007, The Associated Press looked at research on microchips and health and found two published reports detailing malignant tumors in chipped dogs. Researchers said cancer appeared linked to the chip in one case, but the cancer’s cause in the other dog was uncertain.

In recent interviews with four veterinarians, none would guarantee that a microchip could never cause cancer, but they stressed that problems are unlikely when chips are inserted properly.


Comments (13)
  1. Ric Brown says:

    first all dogs and cats,then all the ppl. the mark..

  2. Fed Up says:

    Ric Brown is right, Animals first, then people must take the mark. It would be California to be the state to require it first.

  3. jazzrack says:

    the state will require you to buy these things, then will take their cut. it’s all about the money

  4. CaliSucks says:

    How about we tag all the lae makers so we can track them to protect our wives and children. Seems like they love to rape and molest them. Pigs are in the house.

  5. Jt says:

    that’s one of the first things we did when we got our new beagle puppy, knowing how they like to roam with their noses. I think its a great idea!!!

  6. jjvv says:

    My daughter just adopted a cat from the shelter (It’s free cat adoption through the summer in Sac Selters) and they gave everything free, including a bag of food, shots, and the microchip. I’ve also heard of events where it’s free microchip’s. Great idea, my dog is microchipped, athough he’s never been lost in the 12 years I’ve owned him, however, he did get surrendered to SPCA once when my husband was in a accident with him in the car. My husband went to the hospital, my dog got taken to SPCA. I picked up my dog first! LOL.

  7. Hereticmonk says:

    It starts with the pets then it will become YOU who will be chipped. Until the politicians allow themselves to be chipped so we can really see the corruption they’re up to I will refuse any chip inside my pets.

  8. Shook Susan says:

    microchips have saved a lot of animals from being put down. Hereticmonk you are do out of it

  9. Shawn says:

    There is a company in El Dorado California who just came out with a new pet identification tag that addresses most of the issues with current chips. K9QRID.COM is the company.

  10. Robert Killacxkey says:

    People already have them in their cars and cell phones!

  11. SeaCay says:

    Do you suppose the inventor of this technology was thinking of reuniting lost pets with their owners as the primary end use? I’m guessing no. I can hear the language of the bill a decade from now… reuniting abducted children with their frantic parents. You can pass anything if you market it with “it’s for the children” making you the bad guy for opposing it.

  12. jen p. says:

    stop being paranoid, people! microchips make a difference between life and death in many cases. i can’t tell you how many times i have seen an injured stray animal euthanized at the vet clinics i have worked at due to lack of identification. also, this only applies to pets from shelters according to the article so private owners who get their pets from other means will not be obligated to do so. this is about trying to save pet’s lives and save money overall because a few phone calls are cheaper than housing a pet for a week, euthanizing it, then disposing of the remains at taxpayers expense.

  13. fenceamerica says:

    its interesting that in a state with a huge budget problem, insane high unemployment, lowering tax revenues, a fleeing jobforce, that they would spend time writing a bill mandating that another government agency spend MORE money that we DO NOT HAVE on another FEEL GOOD project. How can any legislator presume to pass any law that spends money when we dont have enough money to pay the bills this year. The authors of this bill should be thrown out of office for wasting the people’s time and money on stupid wastefull feel-good projects.

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