Peircing/tattooing your pet cruel?

[Randi]

In Denmark, cats are earmarked/tatooed when they get spayed/neutered/vaccinated etc. Fister had it done when he was about a year old, and of course, it's done while under anesthesia, so it's not painful for them.

The cat I found in he backyard this summer, was earmarked too, that's why I found the owner. I started the search by ringing my vet to see if he knew the cat - he did (Charlie). So I got the telephone no. to the owners and they could come and get him. He lived 10 min. walk away.

Although I think it's a good idea to microchip pets, I would not have been able to find the owner that fast.

People having pets tatooed for other reasons than identification, I find really stupid!! Vets should not allow it!!

[Emeraldgreen]

Microchipping is from all outward appearances not a painful experience. Dogs and cats receive them in the scruff of their necks usually or a bit lower down and it is much like a vaccine but as someone mentioned in an earlier post, a larger gauge needle is used but not that much larger. I've seen cats and dogs receive these and they don't even flinch. If it were for any other reason other than i.d. I wouldn't be for it but it helps get lost animals home so I think it's great.
I think the tattooes in the ear are a good idea as well. In this location they usually don't get covered by fur providing they are placed high enough up on the ear flap and that they are done well (i.e. legible). All vet clinics and shelters have a list of the codes used for tattooes so if a person finds a cat or a dog and calls any clinic or shelter, the code can be looked up to find out which vet clinic or shelter did the tattoo and then from there the owner can be found.
I run a website for lost and found pets and one of the things I usually tell people is to make sure they keep their contact information current with the hospital or shelter that actually did the tattoo. If the family moves and forgets to update this information the tattoo becomes entirely useless.

I am 100% against piercing and tattooing for cosmetic reasons (designs or words that are not used for i.d.). The piercing could lead to infection as others have mentioned and if a ring was used instead of a stud it could get caught on any number of things, including the animals own claws and could rip the ear or whatever part of the body is pierced. It would be so selfish to turn a pet into an accessory like that.
p.s. this is not directed at you Buttercup132 but just at the idea itself.

[buttercup132]

Aww those are so cute!
Although I'm sure most people would disagree
I don't think I could do it though because my cats lick themselves.

[Catlady711]

Microchipping is from all outward appearances not a painful experience. Dogs and cats receive them in the scruff of their necks usually or a bit lower down a larger gauge needle is used but not that much larger.

Microchip needles are very large! Where I work the vets refuse to microchip without tranquilizing the pet first. When an owner balks at doing that they brings up one of the needles to show them and they readily agree then.

All vet clinics and shelters have a list of the codes used for tattooes so if a person finds a cat or a dog and calls any clinic or shelter, the code can be looked up to find out which vet clinic or shelter did the tattoo and then from there the owner can be found.

Not all places have a list of codes for tatoos. In our area (at least 5 counties worth anyways) we don't have any type of system to keep track of tatoos. We only have maybe 5-6 tatooed dogs that come in out of all the animals we see, and no one knows what the tatoos mean or how to track them down, all the tatooed ones were strays and not all were spayed/neutered.

Dog tattooing for ID was common -- BEFORE microchipping was developed. (OK, back in the dinnosaur age). Very few vets do it anymore, the microchip is more reliable, when he took her to the vet for the spay, the vet explained he doesn't tatoo anymore, it is all microchipping.

Around here microchipping is the only ID method we use, not just the place I work for either. Microchips can be scanned by any vet/shelter, and there is a national database for each company that keeps the info for each microchipped pet. Our computer system doesn't have any means of tracking tatoos and as far as I know there are no national data bases for tatoos, although I can't say that part for a fact.

[Emeraldgreen]

CathyBogart, I would agree that small animals, especially tiny kittens would certainly feel the injection of a microchip and I think it would be uncomfortable for them. I was thinking more about adult cats and adult dogs. I have seen the larger gauged needles and the injections themselves and the adult cats and dogs did very well with it. However, I would not want to put a smaller animal or baby animal through that and would wait until they were full grown.
I hope that in the near future they will be able to create even smaller microchips than the ones they have today so even the small guys can be chipped without any pain.
The tattooed daisy applied by the tattoo artist would surely differentiate his dog from another if someone stole it but it wouldn't help get his dog home if it was lost unless he also had it tattooed with a number or had it microchipped.

Catlady777- I don't know, maybe the needles are smaller here in Canada?!? I used to help out at a vet clinic through help with a shelter and witnessed lots of microchipping and while the needles were larger they weren't alarming and I'm a huge softie when it comes to animals. I'd be the first one to worry about that but witnessing so many of them get the quick injection, and as mentioned without even flinching. The majority were larger dogs though so perhaps my view is skewed and I'm thinking mostly of that. It was quite a few years ago.
I'm fairly certain that the clinics in Canadian provinces (the western ones at least) do have records of all the tattoo codes in a book that is provided I think by the BCVMA (b.c. vet. medical assoc.) so if a cat is brought in by someone who found it wandering around on the streets of Vancouver, and it had a tattoo from Edmonton, they'd be able to look it up, call the clinic and then call the family. We managed to get a few animals home that had tattooes from out of province but had moved to B.C. It's an awesome system and one that I hope the States adopts because it's really effective. Microchipping does seem to be the more popular choice these days but in the meantime, the tattooes work great.