Why Me?? - How I became involved in Animal Welfare.
Or, What ever happened to the Countywide Database?

Written July, 2000.... Updated and Published Nov, 2005

Editorial Opinion:

The year is 1977.... Disco is Hot Hot Hot.... I am living in Gallatin Tennessee and own a small company doing electromechanical engineering and commercial repairs and maintenance for several local business's. One morning while having coffee at a local gathering I am asked by one of my customers to accompany him on a trip to the local animal shelter to assist in the euthanasia of several animals that needed to be "disposed" of. I had no idea at the time what an impact that day was to have on the rest of my life. 

After the unpleasant task of "putting down" several dogs and cats I began to ask questions. "WHY" ... why, did this have to happen? It was explained that only a small number of animals brought to the shelter were returned to their original owners and even a smaller number were adopted to new homes. So in order for the shelter to continue functioning the animals were given a week and if the lost were not claimed or adopted they were euthanised. I volunteered at that shelter to clean it up and build new kennels so that the animals could be held for a longer period of time. I then immediately set out to inform everyone I knew that there was a despicable problem in Sumner County Tennessee  that could be fixed by spaying and neutering pets to eliminate unwanted "disposable" animals. Thus began my 20+ year struggle to eliminate senseless euthanasia by spay/neuter and advocacy for humane sheltering. 

Fast forward to 1983... I am living in Los Angeles and volunteering with a neighborhood group that promotes better community relations and a healthier environment to live in for the Silver Lake District residents. At issue is Dog Bites.... we discover that there is a program to get all Dogs in Los Angeles spayed and neutered to make them more docile and less likely to roam the streets. I act as liaison with our group to the LA SPCA to get problem dogs into their facilities to be spayed or neutered. In the process I am asked to take a tour of the LA County Animal Control facility which back then was located in a landfill at Griffith Park. I became physically ill when I saw barrels of dead animals that had been euthanised. The impact of that sight is still burned into my mind and continues to drive me to to promote spay and neuter and work to find ways to get lost animals back to their original owners.

Jump to 1984... I am at a party in Palm Springs and have a chance conversation with a veterinarian on the board of Animal Samaritans SPCA and am told about a new technology that allows pets to be identified via a little radio transmitter embedded under their skin. WOW! as an engineer it was immediately apparent to me how this technology could get lost animals back to their original owners. The technology was very new, expensive, and not yet generally available. I did a little research at the library but never followed through. However I did become a member that year of Animal Samaritans SPCA which I remain involved with today.

Then in the early 90's I begin to hear more and more about RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Chips). I am now living in Palm Springs and involved regularly with Animal Samaritans SPCA and begin to hear stories about pets getting back home after being lost when they had a "MicroChip" implanted. Through the mid 90's more and more information is going around about RFID and the term "MicroChip" becomes synonymous.

After my retirement last year (1998) , Animal Samaritans SPCA begins microchipping animals and I get firsthand experience with the program while setting up their WEB Site and working in the office there. One night last year while painting at their clinic alone, a woman comes to the door looking for her lost dog. She informs me the dog is MicroChipped and wants to know if we have her dog. I explain to her that all lost dogs are taken to 1 of  5 Animal Control Facilities nearby and I give her a list so she can check with them the next day. A few days later the same lady returns and speaks with the executive director and asks for help in locating her dog. She has done everything right... put up posters, contacted all the animal control facilities, called the local radio stations, and placed ads in the newspaper. There was nothing more they could do to help her. 

Many weeks later this story has a tragic ending. The lost dog was originally found by a rescue group which kept the dog for a week before notifying Animal Control. The group did not own a scanner for microchip's and a week later they placed the dog up for adoption. The dog was adopted by a new owner who decided they were unable to handle the dog and relinquished the dog to a different Animal Control facility. Even though the dog had been microchipped and the original owner gave all the information to Animal Control, a period of time had passed and that information had been lost. The dog went unadopted and was euthanised. Days later someone saw the woman's original ad in the paper and contacted her explaining they had seen her dog at the shelter. By the time she arrived it was too late. 

When our then director of Development at Animal Samaritans SPCA learned of the story he asked me to research out how this could have been prevented. What I discovered is as follows: 

1. If the original owner had registered the MicroChip with a national database then the chances would have been greater that the dog would have been correctly identified. 
2. If the dog had been been Chipped with a more common brand of chip such as  AVID then the chances were even greater that it would have been correctly identified by a scanner. (At that time the scanners in use only worked with one brand of chips.) 
3. If the County maintained a regional database of chips then the odds were greater the dog would have gotten home. In 1999 there were over 20 data bases that had to be checked for identification. If an employee at an Animal Control Facility wasn't very thorough in their search, the correct ID might not be found.
4. All Animal Control facilities didn't have computers at that time. They were unable to do searches on the WWW.
5. After doing a research project on the microchip's sold by Animal Samaritans SPCA it was discovered only a 1 in 15 owners bothered to register their chips with a National Database. 
6. If scanners had been provided to all rescue groups, groomers, vets, Animal Control officers, shelters, and all other pet related business's then the odds are greater that the lost animal would be correctly identified.
7. If periodic reminders had been sent to owners to "update their information" on those data bases then the original owner might have been found.

I was asked to work on setting up a County Wide database of MicroChip ID's. I did several hundreds of hours of work on this project including calls to Animal Control and working with Riverside County Disaster Relief to discuss operation of a county wide database as well as a portable database to used in case of disasters to rapidly ID lost pets after a major earthquake when many scared pets runaway from home. I spent time doing online research and preparing budget estimates for the technology requirements.

During discussions over the next 3 years many ideas were tossed around:

1. Create a County Wide Database and setup a WEB site for both Owners and Animal Welfare workers to handle updating and adding information.
2. Setup low cost clinics to implant MicroChips.
3. Educate anyone and everyone handling animals about what is required.
4. Pressure Coachella Valley City's and the County of Riverside to implement a law giving microchipped animals a discount on their license. Make the cost difference greater than the cost of getting the chip to provide extra incentive to the owners.
5. Setup an out of area access to data in case of an earthquake to insure availability.
6. Setup sites for the public to check and see if their data is current.
7. Setup a telephone inquiry system for owners and agencies who do not have WWW access.
8. Provide "Rapid Return" system via all Animal Control Agencies to return strays to their owners without the necessity of taking them to a shelter where they may be exposed to any number of diseases and related problems.
9. Provide "Anonymous" return of "Found" animals to "Rescue Groups" who will not under any circumstances turn in animals "Found" to Animal Control.
10. Provide "Lost Dog" and ":Lost Cat" section on WEB site for owners to list their animals. Provide a "WEB Form" to notify owners that does not include their "E-Mail" address to prevent Spammers from harvesting information.
11. Try to get the law changed so that Animals with a "Chip" are held longer than animals without a chip since merely by the extra effort of an owner getting its pet a MicroChip it increases the odds of finding it alive.
12. Pressure Riverside County to enforce existing laws about shelter notification of lost animals with ALL the shelters in the valley.
13. In order to make this whole concept more palatable to all the groups involved let one group or agency act as the clearing house so there is no additional work and calls to the various agencies. Provide some financial reward to the "Lead Agency" that assumes this role from donations requested from owners who get back their pet because of the County Wide system.
14. Additional monies might be raised by asking for contributions from people who saved the $20 fee by registering with a national database and use the County Database instead.
15. Precautions would be taken to prevent the County from "Harvesting" lists of dog owners in order to collect fees and fines on unlicensed animals.
16. Get the public informed that they are being ripped off by agencies that charge $40 for a device that costs $8 ( 500% markup).
17. Seek County endorsement to legitimize the operation.
18. Pressure lawmakers and regulatory agencies to change the law and standards allowing certified "installers" to implant microchips.
19. Budgets were set at $3,650. for initial setup of the WEB site and Database. Annual maintenance was estimated at $1,560.

Update:

It's now 2005......  So What Happened You Ask??.... In 2002 the subject just went away. All the people involved in the original planning had moved on and no one wanted to do anything about promoting RFID (MicroChip's). A few people asked but no one wanted to do the work necessary or raise the money to make this idea fly. I filed away the info and am now making it public with the hope some out there are interested enough to do the follow thru. As much of it as I can get on this WEB site will be posted.

With 2006 around the corner.....Much of the above information is now out of date. Some of the above ideas have been implemented. But the problem still persists. Thought my next story is only slightly relevant to this subject I am going to force it on you anyway. During Hurricane Katrina a dog was found with a microchip. The data for that microchip was not updated and now the dog is living in the Coachella Valley, thousands of miles from home and not very likely to get back to its original owner. If that owner had been more responsible this dog would be HOME now. Update your MicroChip Registry!

There is one last reason to work toward the goal of establishing a regional database, Cost! It is expensive to warehouse animals! Animals that don't get back to their original owners are warehoused at taxpayers expense. If all pets were MicroChipped then they go home saving us taxpayers thousands of dollars. Monies which could be spent for spay and neuter to eliminate even more unwanted, disposable, animals and thus saving us even more hard earned dollars.

 Judd
11-30-2005