Originally Posted by
Tartan
I saw a news report about a dog being returned to his owner over a year later. He was at a kill place but one of the workers took him home. When she took him in to a vet to get his shots he was checked for a chip and found the information on him. Apparently having a chip doesn't guarantee that someone will ACTUALLY scan for one.
scanning for a microchip is one of the first things our local shelter does. If an animal is picked up by Animal Control, it is scanned in the field. Just today there was a story on the local news and the shelter's Facebook page where a woman and her cat were reunited after 5 years. The cat turned up at the shelter on Monday and they scanned it and contacted the owner. The woman was reunited with her now 10 yo cat! Unfortunately, sometimes when an animal is a stray, someone will find it and keep it without having it checked for a chip. In our city, if you find an animal but want to keep it until the owner is found, Animal Care will come out at no charge to check for a chip. The shelter will also do it free of charge and any emergency animal hospital and veterinary offices will do it too.