National Pet ID Week - Pet Watch
- Justin Lim JH
- Apr 18
- 3 min read
One in three pets will go missing at some point in their life. And about 5 million animals enter shelters each year, and 40 to 60% of them are lost pets.
National Pet ID Week runs April 17 to 23 every year, and it gives pet owners an excellent opportunity to review the necessary steps to ensure their pet is recoverable when it becomes lost.
The Microchip Problem
Microchipping your pet is widely considered the gold standard of pet identification. A rice-grain-sized chip implanted between the shoulder blades, scanned at any vet clinic or shelter, and is linked to your contact details. Simple, permanent, and reliable. Except it only works if you registered it.
It is known that 41.9% of microchips found on shelter animals were not registered to any owner at all. Of the chips that were registered, 35.4% had a disconnected or incorrect phone number on file. That means a staggering portion of chipped pets have protection that doesn't actually function.
When a shelter scans a found animal, they see a number. That number goes into a database. If there's no name, no phone, no address linked to it, the search ends there. The pet stays in the shelter. The owner has no idea.
This is how microchipped pets still end up euthanized, all because of paperwork.
From Microchips to Collar
If your pet is microchipped, the most important thing you can do this week is verify the chip is registered to you.
A collar tag is not a backup to a microchip. It's a parallel system, and often a faster one.
When someone finds a lost dog or cat wearing a tag, they can call you directly. It does not require anything special, as it is practically faster. Reunification can happen within minutes instead of days.
The ASPCA reports only 33% of pet owners keep their dogs and cats properly tagged at all times. That gap represents millions of animals who are harder to get home than they need to be.
A good tag includes your phone number as a bare minimum. An address helps if privacy isn't a concern. Some owners add a note that the pet is microchipped, which can prompt a finder to take the animal to a vet or shelter for a scan if the tag information is somehow insufficient.
Check that the information is legible. Tags can wear down, leading to the fading of engravings. If you have to squint to read the number, replace it.
The GPS collar option
It's worth understanding what a microchip is not: It is not a GPS tracker. A microchip emits no signal, sends no alert, and cannot tell you where your pet is. It only activates when a scanner passes directly over it.
GPS pet collars are a separate thing entirely. They require charging, and are attached to collar your pet keeps on. They work in real time, which compared to a microchip, is better convenience wise. For guardians with high-escape-risk pets, particularly dogs with a history of bolting or cats with outdoor access, a GPS collar adds a layer of active tracking that no passive chip can replicate.
The most protected pet has all three: a registered microchip, a current ID tag, and if needed, GPS tracking.
Bottom Line
It goes without saying that protecting and safekeeping your pet is an owner's upmost priority. May this week be a stark reminder for all of us pet owners to put in the extra effort to ensure our pets don't get lost.
References and Helpful Links
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