The Humane Society of the United States is deeply concerned about the lack of availability of a global microchip scanner in the United States. The recent hurricane disasters have brought to the fore problems that emerged over the past few years, as some microchips in this country have been encrypted and their manufacturer has blocked efforts to enable them to be read by all scanners.
As a result, we have joined with the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, American Humane, American Animal Hospital Association, American Veterinary Medical Association, American Society of Veterinary Medical Association Executives, Society of Animal Welfare Administrators, and others working together—as the Coalition for Reuniting Pets and Families—asking that microchip and scanner manufacturers and marketers permit the use of a scanner that can read all microchips, and that such a scanner be made readily available to shelters, animal control officers, and veterinarians throughout the country. The coalition has reached out to all of the current distributors and manufacturers of microchips sold in the United States, urging them to resolve these issues.
The HSUS was not involved in getting the microchip provision into House bill H.R. 2744. The HSUS does not endorse a particular frequency, technology, or company, but does strongly support use of scanners that can read all frequency microchips.
Using the universal International Standards Organization (ISO) system of open microchip technology—in which all scanners can read all chips, no matter the frequency—will not favor or harm any manufacturer because all manufacturers currently selling non-ISO technology in the United States (including AVID) manufacture and market ISO technology outside the United States. Pets who have an unencrypted 125 kHz microchip can be read by an ISO scanner. Those pets already implanted with an encrypted 125 kHz microchip will be detected by ISO scanners. In some cases, these scanners will not be able to read the encrypted chip. Veterinarians, shelters and others might then need to use a second scanner capable of reading encrypted 125 kHz chips, until AVID agrees to allow its encrypted chips to be read by all scanners (which it has so far refused to do). But adopting an ISO standard should not require any re-chipping of pets who already have microchips.
Again, our goal is not to promote any particular frequency or company. We only want to ensure that the United States moves in the direction that so many other countries have taken with far greater success than we've seen here—allowing scanners to read any microchip, and thereby encouraging much wider use of microchips since they will be more reliable, affordable, and effective in reuniting lost pets with their families.
