Your dog or cat may be walking around with a chip that will prove worthless if they get lost.
It was love at first nuzzle when Meridith rescued Nahla four years ago.
“The most important thing to us was making sure that that chip was registered in our name,” she said.
According to her receipt, Meridith paid Tampa company, RFID-USA, $32 to update the information on Nahla's chip.
“We assumed everything was fine and should she get out they would scan her chip and see we were the owners.” Meridith said. The family discovered their beloved dog was not registered to them after Nahla lost her tags last month. They took the dog to a local shelter and had her chip scanned only to find out it showed she had no owners.
Sherry Silk with the Humane Society of Tampa says outdated registration information makes it almost impossible to reunite a pet with their owner after they are lost.
The pet chip industry is unregulated, so it is up to pet owners to check out pet chip companies. We checked and found 17 complaints with the Better Business Bureau against RFID-USA, also known as the Petchip registry.
RFID-USA responded via email to say the company addressed all complaints including what it calls false allegations and is working with the Better Business Bureau.
Nahla now has a new microchip registered to her family.
If you want to check whether your pet’s chip is registered to you, go to any vet or shelter and have it scanned. The Humane Society also recommends you put your name and cell phone number on your cat or dog's collar for added identification.
