Question from kellylynn
I was recently looking at some animal rescue groups websites and have noticed that all of the ones I looked at they note that they microship all of the animals that they have up for adoption.
My knee jerk reaction is that this is NOT good. I just don’t see the need to insert a foreign object into my pet so that I can track it. I do understand how it helps when a pet gets lost, but… As an electrical engineer I understand RF and the like and I know first hand how it can affect a person, but this is an animal and biology MAY be a bit different. Also I know that the chip is not ON at all times. As a car accident survivor I know first hand how a body fights against foreign objects beneath the skin, mine was painful but this may not be.
I talked to someone I know at one facility and questioned her on this. And she brought up ‘no clinical evidence has been found for this to be an issue’. But did note that ‘anything we inject can cause cancer’ and that there are ‘bigger risks’ out there.
I still am not sure that I agree. My problem is that when I want to get another pet I would like to do so through a shelter and it seems they all microchip now. Do you know anything about microchipping? Are there any studies you have that review this?
Debra’s Answer
I want to add a personal story and comment to this, now that I am reading your comments.
My husband and I have had one or more cats for most of our 21 years together. For much of this time, we lived in a rural area in Northern California, in a forest. We let our cats roam as they wanted. We never chipped them and we never even put a collar on them with an ID tag.
We had several litters of kittens (which all went to good homes) and in one of the litters there was a black cat and a very white cream cat. They were so cute, and when they curled up together they looked like a Chinese yin/yang symbol, so we had to keep them. The white male we named Merlin, and the black female we named Meemer (where that name came from, I don’t recall).
One day, when they were grown, Merlin disappeared. We weren’t worried, because we had had cats go off alone from time to time and they always came back. Two weeks later, there was a knock on the door. It was our neighbor down the street. She had our Merlin in her arms. She said that her cat had died two weeks before and shortly thereafter, Merlin came to her. She knew she should have returned him before, but he had been such a comfort to her. She was now returning him to us.
We were so moved by this story that we offered Merlin to her to keep, and she was overjoyed. We had other cats. She had none. Merlin obviously chose to be with her and we could visit him any time. As much as we loved him, we respected his choice and let him go.
In response to the comments that animals should be chipped so they can be found, I like the comment that suggested a tattoo. I’m always wanting things to be most natural. If animals needed chips for themselves, I think Nature would have provided them. Personally, I wouldn’t do it. And while I understand the loss of a pet, I think there are way too many dangerous technological “solutions.” I’d rather love my pets and have them be healthy and happy than give them a risk that may not be necessary.
