A pet microchip company has unexpectedly shuttered, leaving pet owners concerned about their furry friends.
Save This Life, a national company that manufactured chips for dogs and cats, was listed as inactive on Tuesday, according to Texas’ comptroller franchise tax records.
The news has alarmed worried pet parents who are scrambling to figure out another option so their animals are safe in an emergency and so they can be reunited in case they get loose.
Many users on Reddit who had their pets registered with Save This Life shared that they were never even contacted about the closure.
“Wow. If I wasn’t a Reddit addict I wouldn’t have known. They should have contacted their clients. It is not like they didn’t have our contact info. I hope all the vets post this information in their office. For goodness sake what a false sense of security,” one person shared.
“My dog is registered with them and I know for a fact it is up to date, since I just changed my address with them a couple of weeks ago. They didn’t email, call, or anything. It would be a simple thing to do at least an email,” another said.
A user wrote in the thread that they had a lost cat hanging around their house and when the chip was scanned, the vet said that it was registered with Save This Life. “This is totally someone’s cat, but now we can’t get in touch with the owner!”
Save This Life’s website says that if a microchip number starts with either 991 or 900164, then it is one of their microchips.
Calls to Save This Life’s phone number reportedly lead to an out-of-service message, and emails are being responded to with an automatic reply.
“We immediately tried to reach Save This Life to learn what was happening,” the American Animal Hospital Association Chief Value Officer Keith Chamberlain said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, phone lines were down, and email inquiries came back stating Save This Life staff were aware of the problem and working through the issues. After continued search failures, we made the decision to disconnect them from the AAHA search tool, and we are encouraging pet owners to contact their veterinarian to determine if they need to re-register their microchip with another registry.”
While there’s no data on how many pets are microchipped, the AMVA claims only six out of 10 microchips are registered.
There are more than 40 microchip companies nationwide, including Avid Identification Systems, Inc., BuddyID, HomeAgain, and National Microchip Registration.
Those who had their pets registered with Save This Life “don’t need to over worry — chips can be registered with a new company using the same chip,” Brian Lippai, chief of administrative services with the Ocean County Health Department, told Asbury Park Press.
According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, a microchip is a small, electronic radio frequency identification device (RFID) that’s enclosed in a glass cylinder the size of a grain of rice. Dog and cat owners register their personal information on the chip through a registration database.
The microchip itself does not have a battery — it is activated only when scanned. If a lost pet is found, a vet or shelter can scan them for a chip, which will transmit the identification number to the scanner and provide the owners’ information.
