The fear of waking up one day and finding that your pet has escaped because someone forgot to lock a door or left a window open is very real. Compounding the problem is that locating a lost pet is almost entirely a stroke of luck — if someone sees your posters and messages, if they are able to identify the animal they are looking at as yours, if they are able to contact you… if, if, if.
Other countries have long had a solution for this issue, and the Indian pet-owning community is slowly beginning to come around to it: microchipping.
A microchip is essentially a minuscule piece of technology, no larger than a grain of rice encased in glass, that is injected into the skin of your pet dog or cat, usually between the shoulder blades, in a relatively painless procedure.
The microchip carries a unique identification number — think of it as an Aadhaar number for pets — that shows up when scanned by a microchip scanner. That number can then be matched with databases to locate the pet’s owner.
Dr Deepa Katyal, a veterinarian who has been practising in Chembur, a suburb of Bombay, for 25 years says most clinics offer the service of microchip injection and this is becoming increasingly common as a requirement for domestic and international travel.
Of course, pet owners have a slew of questions: how safe is the procedure, how long does the microchip last, will it hurt my pet, how exactly does it function, what are the benefits, where can I get it done?
The process of microchipping is near instantaneous. The microchip, which is manufactured by several companies like Interra Cognita, Pet Chip India and Allflex India, comes in its own sterile applicator and is injected into your pet. While the microchip may come from different manufacturers, it must be from an ISO-certified company to be valid in India.
Following the injection of the microchip, you as the pet owner must register yourself with the company, providing a means to contact you should your pet be lost and found.
If your pet is a dog, you can also register yourself with the Kennel Club of India (KCI), which has the most exhaustive database on pet dogs, and not just pedigreed ones, in the country.
Once your pet has had a microchip implanted, it lasts a lifetime. It should cause no pain. If you notice pain, take your pet immediately to a veterinarian and have it checked.
The chip is not a GPS tracker, so you cannot track your pet’s movements. It functions as an identifier, quite like a regular dog tag but one that is invisible. When a lost animal is brought to a shelter or a veterinarian and scanned using a microchip scanner, the magic Aadhaar number will show up. It works on radio frequency identification, or RFID, which matches the identification picked up by the scanner with the data on the company’s or the KCI’s database. It then provides the information of the vet/shelter to the company, which in turn contacts the registered owner and tells her where to find her missing pet.
The process of microchipping costs between Rs500 and Rs2,000 depending on where you get it done, and has more benefits than merely locating a lost pet. A microchip is compulsory if you wish to take your pet along when travelling abroad, and is recommended for domestic travel, too.
The biggest benefit is that the microchip, unlike a dog tag, cannot be lost or removed, which means your pet will be identified if it ever comes to a shelter, despite lacking a collar.
Abhimanini Sawhney
Abhimanini Sawhney is a policy analyst and writer working on international and environmental policy. She is also a staunch animal rights advocate and the proud owner of a dog.