Pets

Issue date:
April 10-12, 1998

Tag your pet -- with a microchip

How technology is changing your pet's life, and might even save it.

wo summers ago, a black flat-coat retriever named Kemp bounded out the back door of his Grey Eagle, Minn., home and didn't come back. Owner Mike Wolters anxiously searched his yard and the edge of nearby Big Swan Lake. To make matters worse, Kemp was not wearing a collar.

After a few hours, Kemp's breeder got a call. Two boaters had plucked the dog out of the water and brought him to a shelter, where a scan revealed a rice-sized microchip in the scruff of Kemp's neck. The information encoded on the chip included the breeder's phone number, which led back to Wolters.

For about $50, Home Again, distributed by pharmaceutical company Schering-Plough, combines a painlessly injected transponder with a national database of pet owners. When a stray arrives at a shelter, it is scanned and the owner contacted.

"Microchipping," which has the approval of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, is just one of several advances in pet-related technology. America's 65 million cats and 60 million dogs are going high-tech as never before.

If you worry about the Orwellian implications of an implant, there's another way to find a lost pet. Child Trace of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., has a home genetic test kit for pets. A sample taken from inside a pet's cheek with a cotton swab is mailed to a lab; later, it can be used to positively identify the animal. The kit, under $10, will be out this summer.

To protect your pet from nighttime dangers, a safety collar (about $20) from American Petronics in Orlando, Fla., and other manufacturers lights up when it senses darkness.

American Petronics' Electronic Bark Stopper keeps a dog from getting too vocal. The $89 device first warns your pet with a series of beeps. If he keeps barking loudly, the collar sends a reprimanding static jolt. "A properly trained dog will get shocked maybe two or three times in its life," says spokeswoman Sue Mohr.

If your companion is sick or hurt, the ASPCA's new 24-hour Ani-Med hot line -- 610-254-7900 -- can help you determine the right treatment. (It's automated; you won't get a live voice on the line.) The only charge is the cost of the call.

With technology, even death may not be final. Geneti-Pet, of Port Townsend, Wash., freezes pets' blood for possible future cloning. The idea came from Jurassic Park, says spokesman Paul Asmus. Last fall, he and his family lost their own pet with the death of golden retriever Chipper. They're still grieving. Says Asmus: "I tell my wife, 'Be patient. He'll be back.' "

Christopher Elliott last wrote about the reliability of medical information on the Internet.