April 22, 2004 :

A warning issued by The Humane Society of the United States and animal care and control organizations cautioned pet owners that the nation's animal shelters and rescue organizations may not have scanning devices that can read or detect a recently introduced foreign microchip.

The foreign microchip is being promoted and sold by the chain of 440 Banfield Pet Hospitals, many located in Petsmart stores. The warning comes as Banfield, supplied by a European microchip company, has entered the microchip market with full knowledge that the chip they are selling cannot be detected or read by scanners in use for pet recovery in the United States.

AVID, HomeAgain, and all of their resellers provide microchips and matching scanners which operate at 125 kHz. This is the "standard of care" selected by animal care groups in the U.S.

The microchips sold by Banfield operate at a different frequency (134 kHz), and require a different scanner. The database which houses the pet owners of Banfield chips, operates through Banfield. The chips are not registered in the standard recovery networks that shelters rely upon. In other words, if you find a dog wearing a collar tag for one of these chips, you must contact or go to a Banfield clinic.

Unlike AVID and HomeAgain, Banfield has not yet provided end-users with the thousands of compatible scanners needed to read the millions of U.S. microchips currently in pets. The incompatibility between scanners and microchips means some micro-chipped animals entering shelters may be treated as unidentified and destroyed or not returned to their families.

During the week of 4/19/04, a cherished pet was euthanized at a Virginia shelter because a Banfield veterinarian installed this foreign chip -- without informing the owner that her dog may be at risk. The shelter did everything right by carefully scanning the dog, but no chip was detected. Had the dog been carrying a US standard chip, it would have gone home. Instead, the owners had to identify the body.

Putting the lives of our pets at risk is totally unacceptable. Especially when compatible chips could have been offered by Banfield. Introducing an incompatible European standard chip into our existing American infrastructure is irresponsible, and can create a false sense of security for those pet owners who unknowingly use it.

We rely upon, use, and support the United States Standard (125 kHz) pet microchip system. We recommend that any pet owner choosing a microchip for their pet's protection, ask the following question, "Does the chip you are placing in my pet comply with the United States Standard at 125 kHz?" If the answer is `NO', your pet may be at risk.