A Tragic Reminder – Please Microchip Your Pets
I know getting a microchip for your pets isn’t sexy, and it’s probably not on your list of things to do today; but when accidents happen it really can help save your pets life.
The Tragic Story of Baylee
Baylee via Justice for Baylee
Last week Laurie Lambeth’s 11 year old Cocker Spaniel Baylee got lost. Her family searched the whole day with no luck, but at 11pm they received a call and found out she had been picked up and taken to animal control 20 miles away. When Lambeth went to animal control at 8am the next morning she was told she couldn’t pick up Baylee; she had been euthanized the night before.
Under Michigan state law if an animal is not wearing any form of ID (tags, microchip, or license) the shelter shall hold them for 4 days, and if the animal does have ID their hold is increased to 7 days. But there is one exception:
This section does not apply to animals which are sick or injured to the extent that the holding period would cause undue suffering, or to animals whose owners request immediate disposal. MCL 287.388
Saginaw County Animal Control made the decision that Baylee was suffering. “The dog was blind and had a large tumor, which prompted animal control staff to call in a veterinarian to examine Baylee.” According to animal control director LeeAnn Ridley Baylee’s tumor was “literally the size of a cantaloupe dragging on the ground.”
Baylee didn’t have any ID. She wasn’t microchipped, wasn’t wearing a collar, and didn’t have any records of being licensed with the state. Without having anyone to contact animal control made the decision to euthanize her within an hour of her arrival at their facility.
Baylee’s family found out that she had been picked up by animal control at 11pm, since the facility was closed they had to wait til the next morning to pick her up. By that time it was already too late.
And concerning Baylee’s health Lambeth states that her own veterinarian was aware of Baylee’s tumor and they chose not to operate. “It got big, but it hasn’t grown in about a year,” Lambeth said. “We didn’t want to put her through something where it would repeatedly have to be removed.” She says Baylee was a happy, healthy dog who was not suffering.
The Term Suffering is Subjective
Unfortunately with the way the laws are written in Michigan there’s no clear distinction as to what constitutes suffering; that decision is subjective itself. I think we can agree that severe injuries such as badly broken bones cause suffering, but where do you draw the line?
What one person sees as suffering will differ; and that call is no longer guaranteed to the owner when a pet gets lost.
Any Dog Can Get Lost
The sad fact is that any dog can get lost. Dogs bolt out of doors, jump fences, take off after car accidents, run away from fireworks, and the list goes on.
While the case gets settled (Lambeth is currently pursuing an investigation) the laws might change, but in the mean time there’s one thing us pet owners can do – microchip our pets.
I am not playing the blame game; but I do I want some good to come of this tragedy. I hope at the very least it highlights the importance of having proper ID on your pet; and while collars and tags can fall off a microchip is there for good – just make sure to keep the registered info up to date.
You can’t guarantee your dog won’t get lost; but you can guarantee they’ll have ID.
Microchip Statistics
Animal shelters have lost pets coming into their facilities every day; when there’s no way to identify an owner the chances of the pet being reunited become quite slim.
- Approximately 7.6 million companion animals enter animal shelters nationwide every year. Of those, approximately 3.9 million are dogs and 3.4 million are cats. – ASPCA
- A study of more than 7,700 stray animals at animal shelters showed that dogs without microchips were returned to their owners 21.9% of the time, whereas microchipped dogs were returned to their owners 52.2% of the time. – American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)
- Only 58 percent of the microchipped animals’ microchips had been registered in a database with their pet parent’s contact information. – Petfinder
- 87 percent of microchips are detected during a scan when the animals entered the shelter. 10 percent were detected during a medical evaluation, and 2 1/2 percent were detected just before the animals were scheduled for euthanasia. – JAVMA 2009
Conclusion
Baylee’s story could happen to anyone; accidents happen & dogs get lost every day. So while microchipping your pet isn’t sexy it really can save your dogs life.
Oh how sad and how truly, truly awful. It’s true, any dog or cat can get lost and sometimes it’s harder than peeps realize to find them. MOUSES!
Purrs,
Seville
PS. I have a tat in my ear but when I got lost, the tat was useless. No database for tats. Worked out well for me, though, on account of that’s how I found my new home with the peeps. purrs
Oh yeah I forgot about tats – those used to be a lot more popular; though I don’t really recall ever seeing them used for a successful reunion. It did work out well for you though 🙂
This is terrible. The same can be said about cats although in NJ shelters can destroy cats right away. My Aunt’s cat went missing June 6th and can you believe she just started going to shelters today??? She still hasn’t answered as to whether he has a microchip that I’ve been asking since he went missing.
That is sad that they destroy them right away; but I suspect it happens a lot more than I was aware of around here as well. Sorry to hear about your aunts kitty – I hope she finds him.
Oh, how tragic for that family. 🙁 I can’t imagine how they must have felt when they found out. If only … IDs are important. Microchips are the best. Thanks for sharing.
This is a very important post. Mom got Taffy the Cocker Spaniel chipped recently, after chasing her down the street in the middle of winter with no tags on was all it took. Love Dolly
We had a dog growing up that had a tendency to bolt out the door; it resulted in us having to chase him down the street as well. Scary stuff.
That is such a sad story. Since The Ginger Sisters don’t wear collars in the house, microchipping is especially important for us.
Wow, that is really sad! All of my pets are microchipped! It’s also important to have the chips scanned regularly to make sure they are still working! I have had several friends have pets and the microchips malfunction and they’ve had to re-chip.
Wow. First of all, that shelter was SO wrong. Absolutely disgusting. Just by the way that officer was talking, I could tell that she didn’t have a clue what was going on and she didn’t seem to care! I’d take legal action just so I could raise awareness. All of my animals are microchipped. In 2013 my cat Edison ran away and he’s the only one of my animals who wasn’t microchipped. I feel guilty and still sad. I will never make that mistake again.
I’m glad the owner is pursuing it; I know I’d be absolutely heartbroken if that happened to my dog. It really is scary to think what can happen to our pets when they end up lost; not even being given 4 days.
It’s also important to check your microchips regularly. I had Mr. N scanned one time and nothing showed even with two different scanners so he had to get re-chipped.
What a heartbreaking story. I think it’s important to have collars and tags on your pets as well so they can be quickly identified as having a home. We never had our pets microchipped before we got Luke (who came with one) but we will from now on…you can’t do too much to protect them.
This is one of the best posts I’ve seen on microchipping, not just because you’ve highlighted this tragic, but all too common, tragedy. I like that you’ve listed the critical statistics around microchipping and lost pets. These are such important numbers! I can’t stress enough how critical it is to microchip your pet! I’m posting a tragic if-only-she-was-microchipped story myself in the next couple of days. Thanks for this post, definitely sharing!
A sad story and it sounds like a sad chain of events. The family does bear some blame though. How in the world do you not have at least tags on a blind dog? Of course I do know about a case of a dog lost or stolen and eventually recovered 6 months later. The dog was tattooed but a vet neutered it anyway even though it was a found dog with a tattoo. Vet never bothered to ask any questions about the circumstances and even had a flier with all the info about the dog in his office. This was before microchips. I guess nothing is 100%.