Microchips Help Toto Find a Way Home

The chip not only forces pet owners to be more responsible, but helps prevent someone else from falsely claiming a pet, and makes an owner legally accountable for a pet’s dangerous behavior, Metzner said.

No need to worry about the scanner being unable to recognize the 125 kHz microchip. In 2007, the US Department of Agriculture did a study that said 125 kHz is the most commonly used frequency used in the U.S., so 100 percent of chips will be read, Metzner said.

The chips effectiveness does not stop there. It has decreased the population of animals in shelters.

“We used to find about 22,000 stray animals a year in the 1980s,” Metzner said. “When we started microchipping in 1993, we found only 8,500.”

This lowers the number of animals, euthanizations and the money spent to feed them.

“Many more lives are being saved and the credit goes to the microchip,” she said.

The number of animals taken in by Austin shelters have decreased, which may be a result of chipping, or neutering and spaying, said Lisa Starr, marketing director of The Austin Humane Society.

“Pet overpopulation is still a problem, if animals are dying in the shelters,” Starr said. “If adoptable animals are still being euthanized, that means there are too many animals out there than there are pet owners — there’s still overpopulation.”

Microchip does not stop overpopulation, but it helps them get back to their homes, Starr said. But spaying and neutering all your pets does help decrease overpopulation.