This year, we are celebrating 10 years of sponsoring microchips for shelter animals. Through our Friends of the Shelter program, the Prince William SPCA has sponsored the microchip program at the Prince William County Animal Services Center since January 1, 2014. More than 19,000 microchips–valued at $154,400–have been dedicated to this important program that reunites families and saves lives.
Each cat or dog adopted from the shelter since that time has received a complimentary microchip sponsored by the Prince William SPCA. Strays that enter the shelter system and are redeemed by their families also receive microchips before departing. If you adopted or redeemed a pet from the shelter, your pet was microchipped with our program.
There is never a fee to the pet owner for this service. Donations to support this ongoing effort can be made on our donation page.
The program uses SmartTag Microchips that are registered at the time the pet leaves the shelter. Microchips carry an identification number that is unique to each individual pet. While they do not serve as tracking devices, microchips can permanently and positively identify pets, linking them back to the owners. If a pet gets lost and is taken to a vet clinic or animal shelter, it will be scanned for a microchip to reveal its unique ID number. That number will be called into the pet recovery service and the owner will be contacted using the information on file with the pet’s microchip. Since there is no battery and no moving parts, there is nothing to keep charged, wear out, or replace. The microchip will last the pet’s lifetime.
Another benefit to the microchip includes lost pet “Amber Alerts” that can be instantly sent to broadcast the alert, with all the pet’s details, via email, phone and fax to all the shelters and rescue organizations in a 50-mile radius of the pet’s last know location. The chip has a 24/7 free live support feature that owners can call for any lost/found pet situations or questions. They also provide free “Instant Lost Pet Posters” that can be created with one click of the button and then printed at home.
