Can the microchip help locate a lost pet?
Not in the way many people think. The microchip implant does not have GPS capability to locate a missing pet, nor does it use a satellite. The read range on a VeriChip implant is only about three to 12 inches, so a scanner would have to be very close to an animal to read the implanted chip. A microchip implant can help recover a pet if — and only if — the pet winds up at an animal shelter or a veterinarian’s office. When shelter staff members find a stray animal, they first check to see if the animal is wearing a collar. If there is no collar, workers run an RFID reader over the animal’s body to look for a microchip implant. If the pet has been chipped, the implant will emit a numerical code that can be looked up in a registry to identify and contact the owner. Because the scanner must be brought very close to an animal in order to read its RFID implant, the implant would not help find a pet that has been lost in the woods or gotten loose on a city street.
