Microchips Result In High Rate Of Return To Owners
An Ohio State University study finds that lost companion animals that have been implanted with microchips are significantly more likely to be recovered by their owners than those without.
Owners of companion animals that had been implanted with microchips recovered their pets in three out of four cases, according to this study by Ohio State University. In fact, the return-to-owner rate for microchipped cats was 20 times higher and for microchipped dogs 2.5 times higher than the rates for all stray cats and dogs entering shelters.
According to this study, for microchipped animals, the biggest reason owners could not be located was due to an incorrect or disconnected phone number in the database (35.4%), followed by owner failure to return calls or letters (24.3%), unregistered microchips (9.8%), and microchips registered in a database that differs from the manufacturer (17.2%).
Other findings:
- 87% of microchips were detected during scans upon entering the shelter, 10% detected during medical evaluation, 2.5% found just before animals were scheduled for euthanasia.
- 12% of microchips would have been missed without multiple scans.
- In total, the owners of 72.7% of microchipped animals were found.