There was a case in the UK where a dog from Ireland was found living in England after it vanished around 7 years ago who also had a micro chip. Of course it does raise one rather important question – surely during all the years the dog was missing it must have come into contact with a vet at least once for treatment or vacs – so why the hell wasn’t it scanned for a chip?
What is the point of paying for a micro chip if nobody bothers to look for one? I think it’s a waste of time & money implanting a chip if nobody actually uses a scanner at any point during a dogs life/treatment – if ALL vets automatically scanned each new dog that turned up in thier practice then things like this could be prevented.
I think vets could play a very big part in reducing theft of dogs if it was made a vets responsibility to scan all new dogs they treat, then people wouldn’t spend years thinking thier beloved pet was dead. If the system is just not being properly utilized or monitored by the very people who put the implants inside the dogs then what hope do any of us stand of being reunited with missing pets?
It just doesn’t make any sense for vets to be telling us all how important & responsible it is make sure our dogs are fitted with a microchip when they themselves are not taking it seriously.