Properly Using Pet Identification For Your Animal

By Author: Mike Ferring
Total Articles: 4
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There are an increasing number of ways that pet owners, veterinarians and animal hospitals, and animal boarding facilities are using identification methods for pets. Cats and dogs all need identification and there’s no denying the importance of a reliable and consistent pet identification method.

It only takes one visit to your local animal shelter to realize the importance of pet identification tags. Shelters are where many lost and abandoned pets are housed. And if the pets do not have proper identification or their owners cannot be located, then after a certain period, many animals in shelters are euthanized because shelters cannot take care of them forever.

Pet ID options for pet retailers, boarding facilities, veterinarians and pet hospitals are growing wider every day. It used to be as simple as a small chain collar with a personalized ID tag. But today, there are several methods to properly tag and identify pets.

1 - Adhesive Pet collars:

Make sure when you’re taking your pet to the veterinarian or boarding facility that they remove your permanent collar and instead put a temporary adhesive ...
... pet collar around the dog’s or cat’s neck. These temporary collars ensure that the facility doesn’t mix up animals or perform the right procedure on the wrong pet. Most vets or boarding facilities will write the animal’s name on these animal ID tags, perhaps along with other identifying information such as why the animal is there or a phone number if your pet gets out.

“It’s a very easy process for pet boarding facilities or veterinarians to use adhesive pet ID collars,” says Mike Ferring of TabBand, a leading maker of animal identification tags. “Administrators can simply write on one of our collars with a simple ballpoint or pencil and the information will remain for months.

“Some veterinarians now have computerized systems,” Mike says, “and those can print a label and stick it onto the animal ID band and then attach the ID band to the animal. It's fast, easy and effective for an organization that works with a number of pets.”

2 - City registered pet license tags:

Some towns and cities require licensing or identification requirements for a pet. License tags are usually purchased from the city’s animal control department. The pet is then assigned a number (which is tracked in a computer database), and given an identification tag which is then attached to the pet's collar. If a registered pet goes missing and is later found, the animal control department can check the tag number, pull up the corresponding contact information and alerted to the pet’s whereabouts.

However, city license tags can be somewhat unreliable, as they may fall off, get lost, become unreadable, or the pet may slip out of the collar.

3 - Pet tattoo:

During spay and neuter procedures, pets are commonly given tattoos as a visible and somewhat permanent identification method. However tattoos usually fade over time, making them illegible. And because of the nature of having to put the pet under aesthetic for the tattoo procedure, this pet identification method is generally frowned upon. And most boarding facilities or pet hospitals tend to use laminated collar IDs for positive identification, too, so pet ID tattoos are not so widely accepted.

4 - Microchip:

Advancing technology means that some shelters and animal pounds are now equipped to use microchips for pet identification. A microchip is a small, electronic chip (about the size of a grain of rice) that is implanted quickly and painlessly by a simple injection just under a pet's skin. Microchips contain a pet identification number, plus an owner’s name, address, and phone number, in a computer database. Animal shelters or city pounds are increasingly becoming equipped with scanners to scan a pet's body to quickly locate the ID number of the microchip along with the corresponding owner information.

The right method of pet identification depends on what you feel is right for you and your family, just make sure that you do take the very important measure of identifying your pet, it will make a big difference should your pet escape one day.

Article Source: Identification Bracelets Blog