How does the microchip for dogs work?

Maltese puppy.

When welcoming an animal into our home we must accept certain rules in accordance with current laws. One of them is the so-called microchip, considered as the DNI of pets, which allows us to legally identify them and, therefore, makes it easier for us to recover them if they are lost. For this reason, it is mandatory in all the autonomous communities of the country. But how exactly does this system work?

The microchip was implanted for the first time in Catalonia, at the end of the eighties. Is about a small electronic device the size of a grain of rice (1,5 cm) that includes a unique numeric code inside, with nine digits and four letters. The vet inserts it under the dog's skin, in the neck, so that it can be observed by other experts through a special scanner. Thus they access the data associated with said code and can locate its owners. It is essential that we update this information whenever necessary; for example, when we change our address.

Both the implantation of the microchip and its reading are painless processes. The vet injects it into the puppy when he is between a month and a half and two months old, through a hypodermic needle. It is made with a biocompatible material It does not cause allergies or irritations in the animal's body, so it is totally safe. To read it, it is enough to position the scanner on the area, without the need to alter the dog in the least.

This system suffers an important crack, and that is that today there is no single identification registry of companion animals at the national level, which slows down the process of locating the owners. In communities other than the one where the microchip, the official data of the mascot will not be included. Therefore, if our dog is lost outside the community where it is registered, we must notify the Record or File of Identification of Companion Animals of both communities to expedite the procedures.

On the other hand, the European Union has its own search system, called europenet. It is a group of associations that include the identification records of all the animals on the continent that have a microchip. If our pet were lost in a European country other than ours, we could enter the microchip number on its website, with which we would obtain a list of entities where the animal has been since the moment of its loss.


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