How does pet microchip ID work to reunite pets with owners?

If someone finds your lost pet, they take the pet to a veterinarian’ss office and they have a scanner. They scan it the way you scan a barcode in a store, and it tells them if there’s a name and address of an owner. If there’s no chip, then an animal shelter may hold the pet for a certain amount of time to see if an owner comes forward.

@jca2 I took my cat to the veterinarian yesterday. I asked him how they connect the chip ID number to me. The vet got out his hand held scanner and scanned my cat. The number appeared on the scanner. The vet was going to tell me how they use the number to contact the owner but he got to busy to show me.

Most micro chip companies tell you that you have to pay them to register the chip. Unfortunately it’s a very deceptive practice, and many animal owners choose not to register them because of the cost.

You don’t have to pay anybody to register your microchipped pet. It’s free if you know how to do it! We were told we would have to pay to register our dog with them so we chose not to. Now that I have learned the truth, I’m going to register my dog!
https://medium.com/@annhud/do-i-have-to-pay-for-this-getting-out-of-pet-microchip-hell-2ba61598d95a

There are microchip readers that can read a chip made by any company. It’s a handy tool anybody could take with them while they are out walking their dog, and if they do find an animal running loose they can check for the owner right there.
https://www.petsensei.com/pet-microchips-and-microchip-scanners-frequently-asked-questions-faqs/

@snowberry Thanks a lot. Step 4 in your second link answers my question. The SPCA or veterinarian hospital scan to get the pet’s ID number AND then they have to locate the company that my pets ID number is registered with. Then they can get access to my contact information.

If my cat becomes missing then I will also contact the two organizations that my cat is registered with and report to them that my cat is missing.

It’s a good question. I’d like to know how many registries there are, and I’m curious how many vets know about how many of them.

Good info @snowberry.

You set up an account with the microchip company and it needs to be renewed every year. You get a tag to put on your pets collar. If your pet disappears and someone finds it, they can call the number on the tag and the microchip company will call you. If someone steals your pet, you can call the microchip company and they will tell you, to within a few feet, where your pet is.

We had our little guy microchipped. At one point my wife and I were on vacation…about 4 states away from home…and our daughter was watching the house (adult child). One day I got a call from the microchip company telling me they found my dog! He gave me the address where it was at. I called my daughter and asked how things were going. Going good, she said. I asked how the dog was and she said he was great…he was just in the backyard. I told her he wasn’t and that she needed to go to the address (a few houses away) and to collect him.

I eventually stopped renewing the service. The backyard is now fenced in and the dog is too old and too lazy to want to run away. He only goes out when one of us is with him.

@seawulf575 Thanks for your answer but you are talking about a tracking device that is far different that the pet ID chip that I’m talking about.

The tiny ID microchip that is injected just under the skin of a cat or dog has no power and emits no signal. Therefore it can not be used to locate a lost pet. It can only be used to find out the pet’s ID number when the lost pet is taken to a place (veterinarian hospital, SPCA, etc) that has an special ID chip scanner. What is done with the Pet’s ID chip number is the nature of my question.

@gondwanalon Got it. My dog has the chip implanted but it can be tracked.

Guess I wasn’t clear. It isn’t just the tag. The tag has the phone number to the company.

My dog has a chip. It is registered to PetLink. The vet can run a scanner and get an account number. Then he can log into PetLink and pull up my address and phone number. The chip was a one time charge to PetLink. Have not paid them since and my address/phone are still there.

@RocketGuy Thanks for your answer. I didn’t know about “PetLink”.
It looks to me like the finder of a lost pet (that has a microchip) must search the organization that the pet is registered with. I wonder if the finders of lost pets search the database of more than one registry organization?

So far I’ve registered my cat with “pet key.org” & “found.org”. Guess I’ll register tpwith “PetLink” also.

Also I’m going to have my cat wear a small tag on his collar with the locations where his microchip number is registered (along with my phone number).

I have no idea about the various services. I just hope that there is a way for the vet to figure that out based on the account number that comes up on his scanner.