ANN ARBOR – Humane Society of Huron Valley is advising regional family pet owners to microchip their family pets after the shelter reported its most affordable return-to-owner rate in years.
This year, HSHV has actually just had the ability to reunite 43% of lost dogs with their owners — the most affordable reunion rate in more than twenty years. HSHV is the only shelter for roaming animals in Washtenaw County and Plymouth.
Shelter authorities said that even dogs who do pertain to them with microchips frequently have inaccurate details.
Such is the story of Hershey, a chocolate laboratory mix who was roaming around Barton Hills recently. He approached an individual and rested on their deck, however it was discovered that he had no tag or microchip.
“This is preventable heartache,” HSHV CEO Tanya Hilgendorf said in a declaration. “As an organization taking in lost animals, we believe our first job is to get animals back to the loving families they already have. Animals can’t tell us their address or their mom’s name. Their best ticket home is identification. Microchips result in hundreds of family reunions here at HSHV, are safe, inexpensive, and usually last a lifetime.”
Microchips can be positioned at any veterinary center or at HSHV’s Low Cost Vaccine Clinic for just $20, according to an HSHV release. While microchips cannot do place tracking and are not GPS-enabled, they do help to determine the dog’s owner.
“It’s estimated that 1 in 3 pets gets lost sometime in their lifetime,” Hilgendorf said in a release. “So this happens to even the best pet owners. We can’t emphasize the importance of microchips enough—along with ensuring your contact information is updated.
“This troubling trend also adds to the overcrowding that we and other shelters are experiencing right now. These pups and kitties should be going back home, not sitting in our shelters waiting for new homes.”
If you lose your family pet, you can make a report at hshv.org/lostandfound or by calling 734-661-3545.
For more details, go to www.hshv.org.
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