Excellent advice!

Posted By: AAS <office@animaladvocates.com>
Date: Tuesday, 3 September 2002, at 10:37 a.m.

In Response To: Microchips & tattoos aren't always the cure (Pndkpr)

The FIRST thing AAS does when it gets a dog is to snap on our big, red, ID tag with phone numbers on for AAS, me, a volunteer, and our vet. I am staggered by the number of people who think their dog will ever be lost so they don't need to let anyone know where the dog lives. Personal ID should be mandatory. It is the quickest, best, most effective ID. I always ask people if their dog were lost, would they like the finder to be able to phone them directly, even in the middle of the night? Or would you rather wait til someone takes your dog to the pound so that a licence tag or a tattoo or a microchip can be read and then you be traced, (if your phone number hasn't changed in the years since you tattooed or microchipped)? Seems simple to me and AAS's adoption agreement includes this insistence. As for collars? All my dogs have collars or where would I put the ID tag? And sometimes I have to get quick control of them. I've watched owners of collarless dogs ineffectually grab the dog's scruff to try to get it to do something or get it under control. Pointless, but these people think the dog is "freer" without a collar. I have never noticed a dog give a damn about a collar. Personal ID and a collar is loving and responsible. Next best is a current licence tag, then tattoo, then microchip. AAS microchips every dog and pup immediately and the chip number stays in AAS's name forever. If we sterilize, we tattoo at the same time and we "share" the tattoo with the new owner. Our adoption agreement insists that our pups be tattooed when sterilized.