Microchip ID

A microchip is your pet’s permanent ID. A pet microchip—the size of a grain of rice—goes beneath your pet’s skin. This permanent ID can never be removed or become impossible to read. Veterinarians, Animal Control staff and shelters across the nation use this ID to contact you and reunite you with your pet. All adopted dogs and cats from GIHS have a microchip and microchipping services are available to the general public.

GIHS occasionally hosts microchipping clinics and provides low-cost microchipping for pets. For Information or assistance, contact us.

Q: How does a microchip help reunite a lost animal with its owner?

A: When an animal is found and taken to a shelter or veterinary clinic, one of the first things the staff does is scan the animal for a microchip. If they find a microchip, and if the microchip registry has accurate information, they can quickly find the animal's owner.

Q: Will a microchip really make it more likely for me to get my pet back if it is lost?

A: Definitely! In fact, a study of more than 7,700 stray animals at animal shelters in 23 states showed that microchipped animals are far more likely to be returned to their owners. In that study, microchipped stray dogs were returned to their owners at more than double the overall rate for all stray dogs. For stray cats, the difference in return rates was even more dramatic.

For microchipped animals that weren't returned to their owners, the most common reason was an incorrect or disconnected owner telephone number in the microchip registry database. So don't forget to register your pet’s microchip, and keep your contact information up to date.

Q: Does a microchip replace identification tags and rabies tags?

A: Absolutely not. Microchips are great for permanent identification that is tamper-proof, but nothing replaces a collar with up-to-date identification tags. If a pet is wearing a collar with tags when it's lost, it's often a very quick process to read the tag and contact the owner—if the information on the tag is accurate. But if a pet is not wearing a collar and tags, or if the collar is lost or removed, then the presence of a microchip might be the only way the pet's owner can be found.

Your pet's rabies tag should always be on its collar, so people can quickly see that your pet has been vaccinated for this deadly disease. Rabies tag numbers also allow tracing of animals and identification of a lost animal's owner, but it can be hard to have a rabies number traced after veterinary clinics or county offices are closed for the day. The microchip databases are online or accessed by telephone, and are available 24/7/365.