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OT warning on microchips
Posted by: “Marc Sayer” marcsayer@hughes.net deafdanerescue
Tue Mar 31, 2009 11:55 am (PDT)
Beware of Petlink ResQ microchips. They are made by Bayer and are
starting to show up all over the country. People are reporting problems
with their record keeping, dogs being registered to someone other than
the owner who filled out the registration. But that it not the biggest
problem.
They are selling ISO chips here in the US that almost none of the
shelters/rescues/ vets scanners can read, but they aren’t telling people
about this issue. That’s the same stunt that 24petwatch/Banfield tried a
few years ago, that got them in so much hot water. ISO chips are the
standard in Europe and now Canada, but NOT here in the US. ISO standard
not only uses the 15 number code, it uses a completely different radio
frequency than used here in the US. So called universal scanners that
can scan both the US standard and the ISO standard just aren’t
available, at least not ones that work. After the big debacle with
24petwatch/Banfield , the company was forced to send out thousands of so
called universal scanners free of charge to shelters/vets/ rescues. We
got one. It read the ISO chips just fine, but was only about 10%
reliable on reading American standard chips. Before we found this out, I
had double chipped 2 dogs because their universal scanner failed to read
an Avid chip and a Home Again chip. I tested the scanner, scanning a
chip set on my desk. It read it once in 10 tries. I still have that
scanner. I use it to scan dogs from Canada only. Pretty much all current
American scanners can read all American standard chips, no matter what
brand. The issue of reading differing brands hasn’t been a problem in
over 5 years. But they can’t read ISO chips. All American standard
chips, regardless of brand operate on the same radio frequency. ISO
chips are on a different frequency and so they can’t be read by normal
scanners here in the US. Selling ISO chips in US ought to be illegal.
And that is just what ResQ/Bayer is doing. Eventually the US will
transition over to the ISO chips, but that has been planned to be a slow
process, allowing the industry to develop reliable, low cost scanners,
get them disseminated to all the groups/agencies that need them, and
then slowly transition over as pets with the American standard chips
start to die out. The reason for this is so that the infrastructure to
support the new ISO standard is firmly in place before the ISO chips are
made available, and so that all the thousands of pets currently chipped
with American standard chips will continue to be safe. Rushing this
process is irresponsible and dangerous. If you think your dog is safer
because he has a chip, if that chip is an ISO chip sold by ResQ/Bayer or
24petwatch/Banfield , you may find out the hard way that you were sold a
useless product. BTW, after the big debacle with 24petwatch/Banfield ,
they switched to American standard chips and offered to rechip dogs
they’d chipped with the ISO chips at no charge.They didn’t make a big
deal about this, you had to know to ask, in fact you almost had to
insist on it, but if you insisted, they would do it. Now that’s what I
call customer service! As of now, 24petwatch and Banfield sell American
standard chips here in the US, so ResQ/Bayer is the only company I know
of trying to scam their customers by selling them ISO chips without
explaining what that entails.
I recently got a dog from WA state that was chipped just before it was
sent to me. The vet charged the woman $75 just to chip the dog. Yep you
heard me, $75. Not only that but he shaved a silver dollar sized spot on
the dog’s shoulders first (I guess he felt he needed to make the
procedure more involved so as to justify his ridiculous fee). I scanned
the dog, no chip. I looked at the paperwork. It was a ResQ/Bayer chip. I
looked at the paperwork and their website carefully and saw that they
VERY carefully danced around the issue of what standard the chip was.
They tried to make it sound as if their chips were superior to all
others, and to bolster this they talked about how much more likely your
dog was to be returned if chipped with their chip. What they neglected
to make clear was they weren’t comparing their chip to others, they were
comparing their chip to no chip. This chip has no business being offered
for sale here in the US at this time. None whatsoever.
Permission to crosspost
–
Marc Sayer
Journalist, Photographer, Dog Trainer (APDT member #062956)
Board member – Western States Great Dane Rescue Association
Director of Operations & Training – Deaf Dane Rescue Inc.
Oakridge, OR USA
Oh, crap. We just got our dog microchipped with a resQ chip this afternoon (during his neutering surgery). I’d never seen this article. The vet & assistants assured us the SPCA, animal pound, etc. would have a scanner that read the ISO-based resQ chip. They even demonstrated with their scanner how it worked. They waved the wand around his neck and Jake’s ID # for his microchip showed up on the screen. The resQ was the only chip they offered at our vetrinarian office. I hope that, heaven forbid he ever get lost, he is able to somehow be found and come back safe. I guess that sometimes in life you just have to make choices, and I’m not sure if I just made a good or bad choice. Hopefully, we made a good choice. However, we can no longer take back our decision b/c it has already been done.
ResQ is on the standard that is most commonly used worldwide, and in the US now. This article is a year old, and written during a time of changeover, and is only one person’s opinion. Now, people really should be using the universal scanners. You’re better off with an ISO complient chip than not ISO-complient. AVID is ISO complient now, I think, too. It’s all moving that direction. Our veterinary hospital only uses ResQ, and they’re very good-Don’t worry.
Actually, ISO chips are better than “standard” chips in that they all adhere to an international standard versus varying different manufacturer standards and specifications. Not to mention the chips are also better designed from an engineering standpoint. It seems that only older scanners and AVID scanners have issues with ISO compliant chips. The real tragedy is that non-complaint chips are scanners are being sold here at all, not the other way around.
I cannot tell from this article if they are recommending that we proceed with the new technology or if we do not. It seems I should check with my vet tomorrow. I bought a Bengal kitten and she has already been microchipped with one of these ResQ chips. I wanted to do research on it before I registered it.
I want to find out if my vet, my local Humane Society and animal shelter can scan it. But what if my cat gets lost and ends up across the country? Stranger things have happened. Will they be able to find her?
This is the article I was referring to.
http://webcitation.org/5KDuV5Hk1
Also, wikipedia’s article on microchipping is worth a look.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microchip_implant_(animal)
I completely disagree with you. ISO-compliant chips should absolutely be sold and distributed in the US. I use a service dog and travel frequently. When I travelled out of the US, I had to do a lot of research on what would allow me to by-pass the quarantine. Among other requirements, my dog has to be chipped with an ISO-compliant chip. I could not find one sold anywhere near me, so I had to travel several hours for it. I think it’s wonderful that ResQ is making them standard.
It is rediculous that the US has to be different from everywhere else in the world. As Dominick pointed out, the real issue here is that non-compliant chips and scanners are being sold, and that only the older scanners are the ones that are having trouble.
There is nothing wrong with ISO chips. MANY vets, shelters and rescue groups have scanners that read both non-ISO *AND* ISO chips. ISO is the way of the future, and vet office are switching over. Soon having a “typical US non-ISO chip” will be the thing of the past.
Don’t try to scare people into having dogs chipped twice. Completely unnecessary.
This is an old article but today (June 22 2011) our ResQ scanner picked up a chip that our HomeAgain scanner missed. The ResQ scanner did not pick up THREE chips the HomeAgain scanner did detect. In a shelter, this kind of thing is life or death. Not all shelters are going to scan every animal twice. I can tell you in many cases it’s not safe to do so because frightened animals may not be able to handle this type of handling the first moment they arrive in a shelter. Causing an animal to bite is just as dangerous for the animal as missing a chip.
they are a worthless organization, i have tried to get a cat transferred to my name who has obviously been abandoned. i would be glad to reuinte her with her owner but obviously petlink nor i have had success but they keep sending letters back to me each time i do what the ask and the e-mails are from the same person who signed the letters. i beleive this business is a scam
I have this chip on my service dog, and when I was at a local shelter they scanned her to put her in their system. They didn’t have any issues and were able to pull up the number right away. So now I have her registered in more than one national database, and also at the local shelter.
I have another PetLink negative story. We found a wonderful orange and white cat in Florida which I took to the nearest pet clinic to have scanned. I was given information that the chip was registered to a black cat in North Carolina. The number I was given was disconnected so I call the info provider (AKC Companion Animal Recovery) to report that the cat I had was NOT black. They told me that the chip was actually registered to a grey cat in Minnesota. I had the cat rescanned at a different vet clinic and AKC told them it was the black cat in NC. I do have issues with AKC giving out conflicting information but I am more concerned about the fact that PetLink is selling chips with the same number.
ISO, International Standards Organization, what was it’s precursor? If you are around 50 years old, you may remember film labeled ASA, American Standard Association.
With ResQ being ISO compliant, where is that a bad thing? My mooches are ISO compliant chipped. Non ISO compliant chips should be phased out.
The AVMA has a good Q&A page here: http://www.avma.org/issues/microchipping/microchipping_faq.asp
It should also be stressed that a chip only a backup to a collar with a phone number.