ethical dilemma

[jinian]

I found a stray cat this morning. Sweet, sweet, sweet. He's a young orange tabby who begged to be picked up and then walked around on my shoulders rubbing and purring like mad. He has a collar but no tags. He seemed at ease where he was, if very happy to see me. So was it right to take him inside? Well, I have to say yes, but it was surprisingly hard to decide.

He was not pleased to see the other cats, but I have him set up in the spare room with his own food, water, and litterbox. I have learned that the Seattle Times is bad; they charge $8 a line for found animal ads, which ought to be free. Animal Control will put the information on their web site and phone recording for free, though. I haven't figured out yet where to take the little guy that they could scan him for microchips.

This continues week 2 of "Kylee takes care of animals that aren't hers" -- last week Chairman Kaga stayed over, this past weekend I looked in on a friend's cats, and now this. I suppose it would be worse if I didn't like them so much.

Comments

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

i believe that the vet can usually scan for microchips. or perhaps animal control.

(must get the pirate chipped. i should go call.)

I will not tell you how I know this...

[sebboi.livejournal.com]

But the Humane Society or Animal Control has the ability to scan the chip, and access the data base to get owner information. They will only access owner information and call on petrs turned in and confirmed as abandoned or lost.

They will *not* scan and check if you intend to house the kitten until the owner claims it, that way, they are assured it will be adopted legally and they get their money out of the system.

Vetrinarians have limited access to owner information, only if the pet has been to their particular clinic before. They can scan and get the 'SKU' off the tag to report to HS or AC. I believe this is only for vaccination records keeping.

This may have changed since the system was integrated and I called on it. That was when I was interested in the 'new' technology and possible 'other' applications. You can also feel for the chip, I believe it's sliped just beneath the skin between the shoulder blades, just below the scruff of the neck. It's small, but should be detectable with thumb and forefinger. I don't think they implant kittens less than 6 months old, same time they Spay/Neuter.

Hope that helps.

[jenett]

Obviously, you have an air about you that says "Will be nice to stray pets."

Yeah. Vets who do microchipping can usually scan for it, and animal control either ought to be able to, or ought to know who can. (Or humane societies up there, too, maybe?)

[Idle websearching follows, which I'm sure you could do yourself.]

The City of Seattle shelter does microchipping, so I'm assuming they have a reader, too
http://www.cityofseattle.net/animalshelter/licenses.htm#Microchipping

Also the Seattle Humane Society
http://www.seattlehumane.org/

Re: I will not tell you how I know this...

[jinasphinx.livejournal.com]

So far as I know, there are two major chip brands, each with their own database: HomeAgain and AVID. I have no experience with AVID, but it probably works the same way as HomeAgain. For HomeAgain, a vet can scan the chip, get its serial number from the reader, and then call the phone number to say "Hi, I have this lost cat here, this is the serial number, would you call the owner." (If it's HomeAgain, BTW, the registry's site is http://www.akccar.org/ (http://www.akccar.org/).)

That's kind of a bummer that Animal Control won't scan for you if you intend to house the animal in the interim. :[

Found the AVID site.

[jinasphinx.livejournal.com]

Figured I'd poke around and see if I could find it. It's http://www.avidid.com/ (http://www.avidid.com/).

[torquemada.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm so glad I missed kitten-ness. Mew!