Check your chips

[GILL]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Marc Sayer <marcsayer@hughes. net>
Date: Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 10:51 AM
Subject: CSI OT warning on microchips
To:


Beware of Petlink ResQ microchips. They are made by Bayer and are
starting to show up all over the country. People are reporting problems
with their record keeping, dogs being registered to someone other than
the owner who filled out the registration. But that it not the biggest
problem.

They are selling ISO chips here in the US that almost none of the
shelters/rescues/ vets scanners can read, but they aren't telling people
about this issue. That's the same stunt that 24petwatch/Banfield tried a
few years ago, that got them in so much hot water.

ISO chips are the standard in Europe and now Canada, but NOT here in the US. ISO standard not only uses the 15 number code, it uses a completely different radio frequency than used here in the US.

So called universal scanners that can scan both the US standard and the ISO standard just aren't available, at least not ones that work. After the big debacle with 24petwatch/Banfield , the company was forced to send out thousands of so
called universal scanners free of charge to shelters/vets/ rescues. We got one. It read the ISO chips just fine, but was only about 10% reliable on reading American standard chips.

Before we found this out, I had double chipped 2 dogs because their universal scanner failed to read an Avid chip and a Home Again chip. I tested the scanner, scanning a chip set on my desk. It read it once in 10 tries. I still have that
scanner. I use it to scan dogs from Canada only.

Pretty much all current American scanners can read all American standard chips, no matter what brand. The issue of reading differing brands hasn't been a problem in over 5 years. But they can't read ISO chips. All American standard
chips, regardless of brand operate on the same radio frequency. ISO chips are on a different frequency and so they can't be read by normal scanners here in the US. Selling ISO chips in US ought to be illegal. And that is just what ResQ/Bayer is doing. Eventually the US will transition over to the ISO chips, but that has been planned to be a slow process, allowing the industry to develop reliable, low cost scanners, get them disseminated to all the groups/agencies that need them, and then slowly transition over as pets with the American standard chips start to die out. The reason for this is so that the infrastructure to
support the new ISO standard is firmly in place before the ISO chips are
made available, and so that all the thousands of pets currently chipped
with American standard chips will continue to be safe. Rushing this
process is irresponsible and dangerous. If you think your dog is safer
because he has a chip, if that chip is an ISO chip sold by ResQ/Bayer or
24petwatch/Banfield , you may find out the hard way that you were sold a
useless product.

BTW, after the big debacle with 24petwatch/Banfield , they switched to American standard chips and offered to rechip dogs they'd chipped with the ISO chips at no charge.

They didn't make a big deal about this, you had to know to ask, in fact you almost had to insist on it, but if you insisted, they would do it. Now that's what I
call customer service!

As of now, 24petwatch and Banfield sell American standard chips here in the US, so ResQ/Bayer is the only company I know of trying to scam their customers by selling them ISO chips without explaining what that entails.

I recently got a dog from WA state that was chipped just before it was
sent to me. The vet charged the woman $75 just to chip the dog. Yep you
heard me, $75. Not only that but he shaved a silver dollar sized spot on the dog's shoulders first (I guess he felt he needed to make the procedure more involved so as to justify his ridiculous fee).

I scanned the dog, no chip. I looked at the paperwork. It was a ResQ/Bayer chip. I looked at the paperwork and their website carefully and saw that they VERY carefully danced around the issue of what standard the chip was.

They tried to make it sound as if their chips were superior to all others, and to bolster this they talked about how much more likely your dog was to be returned if chipped with their chip.

What they neglected to make clear was they weren't comparing their chip to others, they were comparing their chip to no chip. This chip has no business being offered for sale here in the US at this time. None whatsoever.

Permission to crosspost
--
Marc Sayer
Journalist, Photographer, Dog Trainer (APDT member #062956)
Board member - Western States Great Dane Rescue Association
Director of Operations & Training - Deaf Dane Rescue Inc.
Oakridge, OR USA

My Homepage - http://gracieland. org
Deaf Dane Rescue - http://deafdane. org
Western States Great Dane Rescue Association - http://wsgdra. org
RescueWatchdogs - http://rescuewatchd ogs.org
Association of Pet Dog Trainers - http://APDT. com

[Taz_Zoee]

Oh no!! Zoee has a resQ chip. I had it tested at my vets office and it scanned fine. Should I be worried?? What should I do? Or should I just have them scan her everytime I take her to the vet?

[lvpets2002]

Well that just great news John.. I have sixteen cats all Micro Chiped with Bayer prod & reg = thru PetLink.. Now I have my Vet scann upon my babies checkups && all has been good.. I also make sure each baby's page is updated on PetLink..

[Cinder & Smoke]

Note:

The problem isn't that the ResQ microchips don't "work" ...
the real problem is that there are not enough READERS in use at Animal Control,
Rescues, Shelters and Vets to insure that a lost pet will ever be successfully *scanned*
and looked up in the ResQ data base.

Beware of Petlink ResQ microchips.
They are made by Bayer and are
starting to show up all over the country. People are reporting problems
with their record keeping, dogs being registered to someone other than
the owner who filled out the registration. But that it not the biggest
problem.

Bayer / Petlink ResQ are selling ISO chips here in the US that almost none of the
shelters/rescues/ vets scanners can read, but they aren't telling people
about this issue.

ISO chips are the standard in Europe and now Canada, but NOT here in the US.
ISO standard ... uses a completely different radio frequency than used here in the US.

So called universal scanners that can scan both the US standard and the ISO standard
just aren't available, at least not ones that work.

Pretty much all current American scanners can read all American standard chips,
no matter what brand ... But they can't read ISO chips.
All American standard chips, regardless of brand operate on the same radio frequency.
ISO chips are on a different frequency
and so they can't be read by normal scanners here in the US.

Eventually the US will transition over to the ISO chips, but that has been planned
to be a slow process, allowing the industry to develop reliable, low cost scanners,
get them disseminated to all the groups/agencies that need them, and then slowly
transition over as pets with the American standard chips start to die out.
The reason for this is so that the infrastructure to support the new ISO standard
is firmly in place before the ISO chips are made available, and so that all the thousands of pets
currently chipped with American standard chips will continue to be safe.
Rushing this process is irresponsible and dangerous.
If you think your dog is safer because he has a chip,
if that chip is an ISO chip sold by ResQ/Bayer or 24petwatch/Banfield,
you may find out the hard way that you were sold a useless product.

As of now, 24petwatch and Banfield sell American standard chips here in the US,
so ResQ/Bayer is the only company I know of trying to scam their customers
by selling them ISO chips without explaining what that entails.
--
/s/ Marc Sayer
My Homepage - http://gracieland. org

Oh no!! Zoee has a resQ chip.

I had it tested at my vets office and it scanned fine.

Should I be worried?? What should I do?
Or should I just have them scan her everytime I take her to the vet?

Zoee's VET must have a Reader that will *read* the ResQ chip ...
Zoee is safe IF she gets 'lost' in her VET's office ... their reader will read her chip.

The serious QUESTION is: if she get's lost out in the big/bad world -
will Animal Control, a Rescue, a Shelter, or another Vet have the proper Reader
to read and decode her ResQ chip??
IF the organization the attempts to scan & read her uses a Scanner/Reader that
DOESN'T activate her ResQ chip - the operator will not get any indication that
the animal he/she is scanning has any chip implanted ... they will incorrectly
assume they've just scanned a NON-chipped stray.

Bottom Line is:
Unless an entire region has standardized on one or two of the similar microchips,
and has saturated ALL Animal Controls, Rescues, Shelters, and Vets with
readers that
are KNOWN to positively identify the chips used in the area ...
Microchipping a pet is a VERY hit & miss proposition.

[Catlady711]

You must have an older email forward there because to my knowledge sometime in '06 or '07 Bayer came out with a universal reader as did many of the other main microchip companies. Avid being the only one holding out on making a universal scanner.

Where I work we use the Home Again microchips with the newer ISO frequency and have their universal scanner. We've not had any problems reading chips from other companies from rescue dogs, etc. where we are told they have a microchip from another company.



http://avmajournals.avma.org/doi/abs...ma.233.11.1729 (Dec. '08 scanner study)



http://www.dolittler.com/2009/01/12 (more detail on study linked to above)

Scanners:

• Bayer: For detecting and reading 125 kHz encrypted and unencrypted), 128 kHz and 134.2 kHz microchips.

• HomeAgain: Same as Bayer’s detecting and reading mix.

• AKC-CAR: For detecting all three frequencies but can only actually read the 125 kHz and 128 kHz varieties.

• Avid: This 125 kHz scanner can detect and reading all encrypted and unencrypted chips at this frequency. It is not a universal scanner.

Results (in a nutshell):

• HomeAgain’s scanner won for overall sensitivity at 93.6 to 98.4% across all six microchip types.
• The Bayer scanner did next best at over 97% for four chips but only about 90% for the more popular 125 kHz chips.
• AKC-CAR’s did over 95% for the 128 and 134.2 kHz chips but lost big at 66-75% for the 125 kHz chips.
• Avid scored as well as HomeAgain on the one frequency it could read, at >97%.