Animal Shelter Society Holds First Micro-Chipping Event For Pets

The Animal Shelter Society held its first ever micro-chipping event for pet owners this morning.

Pet owners were able to bring their pet to get a small, grain sized microchip embedded in the back of the shoulder blade. In the event that the animal was lost and brought to a shelter, the information from the chip could be used to identify the owner.

“It’s very, very important. You know, you invest in your animal because it’s a family member. This takes about 15 minutes when you come through the clinic or into the shelter to have this done. It’s very, very small. It’s about the size of a piece of rice that goes right below the skin in the back neck area and it’s like a little bee sting for the animal for a second and then it registers. We have the individuals, the owners, registered so they don’t get lost cause the pets kind of know where they’re at,” said April Cohagen-Gibson, General Manager of the Animal Shelter Society.

The procedure costs $16 per animal at the clinic which is less than the regular price tag of $25 at the shelter. Even though the most common animals brought in to receive the microchip are dogs and cats, any type of animal can receive one.

“We had a really interesting call. We had a young lady call and say listen, I have to have ID’s my my goats to be able to show them. So today, we got confirmation that we have dogs, felines, ferrets, rabbits, and goats. So ya know, peace of mind. You’re going to be able to find your animals,” added Cohagen-Gibson.

She also stated that if at any point after receiving the chip, the pet owner is concerned it has fallen out, they can return to the shelter to have the pet scanned to verify if it’s still implanted.