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Low and high-tech systems keep your pets safe

Dawn Armstrong
Lake Tahoe Humane Society and SPCA

According to the American Humane Association, only about 15 percent of dogs and 2 percent of cats are reunited with their owners without an ID tag or a microchip. In the neighborhood, for travel, and after disasters, here’s how to assure you can reunite with your beloved companions.

Low tech: A collar and an ID tag for both indoor/outdoor cats and dogs most often gets your pet home. It’s cheap, easy and anyone can read a tag and call you.

High-tech: A microchip transponder is a readable chip implanted by an animal shelter or by your veterinarian. A chip can be scanned and read even if your pet loses their tag. For dogs and cats, the small chip is inserted under the skin, between the shoulder blades. Chips cannot fall off and last the life of your pet. This not only makes it easier for you to get your lost pet back when found, but it also proves that your dog belongs to you in the event he/she is stolen.



Emerging tech: Global positioning systems, or GPS, are like “kid trackers” adapted for pets – a child’s wrist band scaled for a pet’s collar. You can build a system which uses Google Maps to follow your pet wherever he/she wanders. For prevention, you can set a system alert when your pet wanders outside of an area you select.

All of the above: To make any system work, you are responsible for keeping tags and registrations up to date, including microchip company databases. Always keep a collar with a current ID tag on your pet in case there is no scanner available or your pet is found by a Good Samaritan.



For questions on information presented here, call (530) 542-2857. Provided by the Lake Tahoe Humane Society and S.P.C.A. to help “Keep Tahoe Kind.”


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