there is no harm in getting your dog chipped.
when your dog is scanned a number will appear on the screen. UNLESS your dog has an avid chip and is being scanned with a home again scanner. In that instance, the screen will say "avid chip" or something like that. This will alert the vet to get an avid scanner and scan the dog with that on so they will get a number. The number that appears is the ID number of the microchip that was assigned to your dog upon you mailing in the paperwork. SO, a number appears, your vet takes that number and calls the AVID hotline and give them the number. If it is an avid chip, the AVID company will be able to get the name and address of the person who owned the dog at the time of chipping (this information can be changed for a fee if a new owner is given the dog by the old owner. For instance, my sister had her cat microchipped and mailed in her information and teh cats information to AVID so that is what was associated with the ID number. a few years later my sister moved to austrailia and left the cat with me. I then contacted AVID, gave then the ID number of the chip(i had it on hand with the other paperwork my sister gave me from AVID) and told them that my sister had moved and i was the new owner. i had to fax in a new information sheet and pay a fee for this information to be changed). If the AVID company cannot located the ID number, then the chip is most likely a Home Again chip. So the vet would call the home again hot line and give them the number and the company would be able to tell them the owners name and address.
either way, you will come up with a name and address of the owner of the dog if they are microchipped so there is no reason not to do it. Each scanner will be able to tell you that the dog is microchipped, however the homeagain scanner will only tell you that it is an AVID chip (which can then be read by an avid scanner and the owner can still be found).
The controversy lies with the companies. AVID was the first company to come up with this chip. They were making a hell of a profit with the microchip so other companies wanted in on the action. Out came the Home Again chip and the 'universal scanner'. They soon found out that AVID encrypted their chips numbers so they can only be read by AVID scanners, the best the HomeAgain scanner can do is say its an avid chip. The US is the only contry without a real universal scanner that can read all chips thanks to AVID and they're unwillingness to cooperate.
The good thing is most chips that are being put in today are all HomeAgain chips so they can be read by most veterinary hosps, unless the hospital is outdated in their technology.
so chipping gets my
