Did you know that one out of every three pets gets lost at some point during their life? Shockingly, without proper identification, nearly 82% of these pets will never return home. Microchipping your cat or dog can significantly increase your chances of finding your pet in case he or she becomes lost.
Avoid having your dog or cat among the thousands of unidentified lost strays that end up at The Animal Foundation each year. Our Low-Cost Vet Clinic offers Las Vegas area pet owners affordable cat and dog microchipping.
Cat and dog microchipping services are available at our Low-Cost Vet Clinic during the hours listed in the sidebar.
Starting Aug. 1, 2024, all dogs and cats over the age of four months residing in the City of Las Vegas must have a microchip. The city ordinance was implemented by Ward 5 Councilman Cedric Crear.
Cat and Dog Microchipping
Pet microchips are tiny devices implanted just below the skin and registered with the owner’s information. These chips can be read using an electronic scanner. In Las Vegas, Animal Control officers carry pet microchip scanners, so they can immediately identify lost dogs and cats that are registered. This helps keep them out of the animal shelter and reunite them with their families as soon as possible.
Whenever a dog or cat arrives at the animal shelter, they are scanned for pet microchips. If a pet microchip is detected, the animal shelter staff retrieves the owner’s information from the pet microchip manufacturer and tries to contact them.
Pet microchips are tiny, about the size of a small grain of rice. Implanting a microchip into a dog or cat is a quick and easy process that involves a simple injection, similar to the one used for administering vaccines. This procedure is not painful for your pet and does not require any recovery time.
No. Pet microchips do not allow for the tracking of your dog or cat. When scanned, they provide the owner’s contact information.
Microchips can provide your dog or cat with his or her best opportunity for a happy return home. The Journal of American Veterinary Medical Association showed a return-to-owner rate of 52% for microchipped lost dogs, compared to a rate of just 22% for dogs who enter an animal shelter and are not microchipped. Similar increases were seen for non-microchipped lost cats, whose return-to-owner rate of less than 2% increased to more than 39% for microchipped cats.
Cat and dog microchips ARE NOT effective if the ownership information is not kept current. When your information, such as phone number or home address, changes, please contact your pet microchip company to update your information. Usually updates can be made easily online.
Contact information on the major pet microchip companies is listed below. As of 2016, The Animal Foundation uses Found Animals brand pet microchips (before this, we used Save This Life and Home Again brand pet microchips).
- Found Animals
- Save This Life – 855.777.CHIP (877-777-2447)
- Home Again – 888.466.3242
- Avid – 800.336.2843
- AKC Reunite – 800.252.7894
- PetLink – 877.PETLINK (877.738.5465)
