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Pet Identification

 

If your pet were lost, you would want him or her to have a ticket home. Although collar tags are an easy and inexpensive way to identify lost pets, they can easily come off or be removed.  Wouldn't you rather have the peace of mind knowing that your pet has a permanent form of identification, a microchip with a unique number that cannot be altered? SJRAS now microchips pets adopted from our facility, and we are able to offer this service to the public as well.  An appointment is not necessary, and microchips can be implanted any day during business hours except for Sunday. Please call the shelter for more information.

 

Microchipping will also be offered at SJRAS public events such as Pet Photo with Santa, Step for a Pet, Dog Washes, and Vaccine Clinics. No appointment will be necessary for chipping services on these dates. Service will be first come - first served. For the reduced cost of $40 your pet can be microchipped and registered in a national recovery service database, increasing his chance to be identified and returned to you quickly and safely.  Need more information about microchips? Keep reading...

 

What is the HomeAgain Pet Recovery Service?

The HomeAgain Pet Recovery Service is a safe, simple and permanent form of pet identification designed to quickly 

identify lost pets and reunite them with their owners. It's a proven way to successfully recover your pet if it ever becomes lost. HomeAgain is your pet's ticket home. This microchip is also a way to prove identity and ownership of a pet.

How is a pet microchipped? Does it hurt?

 

Similar to your pet getting a routine shot, microchips are implanted in the fat and tissue under your pets skin. The shot for most animals goes totally unnoticed, and those that notice it experience only the pain of getting a needle. Microchips are smaller than a grain of rice, so it's quick, and your pet suffers no long term effects from the shot. Your pet now has been microchipped.

 

What information is needed, and is the information kept private?

 

Once your pet is microchipped, you will fill out an enrollment form. You will supply information about the pet (name, age, sex, color, medical conditions) and information about who to contact should your pet ever be found (you, an emergency contact, your vet office). The information you supply is then entered into a database that is accessible 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This information is not sold or given to anyone unless it is directly necessary to get your pet home to you. The information you provide can be updated as often as you wish. Simply placing a call to an 800 number or visiting the website allows you easy access to provide the most current information to help your pet find it's way back to you if he/she ever becomes lost.

 

How the system works...

Okay - so your pet was microchipped. You've filled out the form with your contact information and sent it in to the HomeAgain database. As you come in the house from work one night Fluffy runs past you and out the door. Fluffy doesn't come home, and you can't find her.

Fluffy is found by someone and taken to a local animal shelter or vet office. These places have scanners similar to the kind we're all familiar with at the grocery store. These scanners can read the number in your pets microchip. So the shelter or vet office scans your pet, gets the unique number in your pets microchip, and calls the 800 number for HomeAgain.

The shelter or vet will give the operator your pets microchip number. They enter that number into the computer, and BAM  your contact information comes up. They will verify with the shelter or vet that Fluffy is a 4 year old black and white Lab/Poodle mix. Once they make sure this is the correct dog, the operator will give the vet or shelter your name, address, and phone numbers. Should they be unable to contact you with that information, (maybe your away on vacation and someone was taking care of Fluffy for you), they will try a name and number you have provided as an "In Case of Emergency" contact. They will call this person and try to get Fluffy home, or to the person you chose to care for Fluffy until you are able to come home.

Either way, Fluffy is safe and will not be euthanized or adopted because no one came to look for her. If she has a medical problem and needs medication the shelter or vet will know that, since you can include that information in her profile with the 

See for yourself how being microchipped saved the life of a tiny little dog......

One HomeAgain client has 3 Chihuahuas and lives in upstate New York. All 3 dogs are microchipped, and wear collars with tags as well. They were visiting relatives in New Jersey over the holidays one year, and the smallest of the 3 dogs managed to slip out of a tiny hole in the fence. Frantically the family searched for the dog through woods and fields. After 36 hours having not found him, the owner's sister received a call from the local animal shelter. Someone had found the little dog shivering in their back yard. They had tried to call the phone numbers on the tags the dog had on, but they where the owners home phone numbers - in upstate New York - where no one was home because they were on vacation in New Jersey. Before leaving for vacation, the owner had put his sister, who he was visiting, on the dogs profile as an emergency contact. So when the little dog was taken to the local animal shelter they scanned him for a microchip, called the database, and got the owners contact information. When they were unable to contact the owner, the shelter tried the emergency contact information and reached the owners sister. Dog and owner were happily reunited, thanks only to that tiny microchip the owner had implanted and his keeping the dogs' profile up to date.

Any pet microchipped has their ticket home right on them, at all times.

Most people will tell you that the safety of their pet is of utmost importance, priceless even.