Microchips can help ID pets

Annie Flanzraich

Wednesday, July 13, 2005 | 8:36 a.m.

Pheobe's family will never have to worry about not being able to identify their white boxer. On Tuesday morning they brought her to the Las Vegas Convention Center to have a microchip implanted under her skin for free as part of a program by Clark County Animal Control and veterinarians around the valley.

"We don't want to lose her, she's a family pet" said Pheobe's owner Michael Beyer ,48, of Henderson. "If the front door is open she'll bolt, she'll run out and get loose."

If Pheobe ever does bolt and gets lost from her family, she can easily be identified by the microchip that was injected into her back between her shoulder blades. The chip is about the size of a grain of rice. The technology has reunited many owners with their pets, said Clark County Animal Control Sgt. David March.

The free program is part of the Emergency Training Exercise being conducted by 78 local, sate and federal agencies at the Las Vegas Convention Center this week this week. March said microchipping ties into emergency preparedness because sometimes when people are evacuated from their homes they are unwilling to leave if they cannot bring their pets.

"We are dealing with evacuation," March said. "And historically people (with pets) either don't evacuate or when they show up at the human shelter they have to leave their pets."

Animal Control purchased 1,000 chips for about $5,000 which will be reimbursed by a grant from the Homeland Security Department.

As of Tuesday afternoon, 145 pets had chips implanted. The veterinarians will continue to implant chips until 8 a.m. Thursday or until chips run out.

Almost any animal can be microchipped, said Dr. Bill Taylor, a local veterinarian who works at Mountain Vista Animal Hospital, from lizards and birds to horses and desert tortoises. He said the hardest animal he has had to microchip was a hedgehog because it was spiny.

Implanting the microchips was also a chance for Animal Control to test the capacity of their new Regional Mobile Emergency Animal Shelter. The shelter is a 33-foot-long trailer that is equipped with everything from 31 cages to an operating table to take care of animals in time of an emergency.