The business is listed as “inactive” on the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts website and its phone number is no longer active.
AUSTIN, Texas — Since 2016, Melissa Stevens has been relying on the microchip company Save This Life for her three pets: Diego, Harrison and Echo. But this week, she was surprised to get an email from her veterinarian informing her that the had company closed.
“With no safety plan or safety net where, like, what happens if my dog got lost and then just the microchip wouldn't work?,” Stevens said. “And if my vet hadn't told me, I would have had no way of knowing.”
When looking up the business on the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts website, the business is listed as “inactive.” KVUE also tried calling the listed number of the business but it was no longer active.
Former Austinite Cameron Gordon used Save This Life for his two pets, Sage and Waffles, and says he ran into issues when ordering a new tag for Waffles.
“The database wasn't updating properly. They never sent me a tag. I reached out to them, I don't know, a dozen times and talked to people,” Gordon said. “And of course, nothing would happen. So I'd call back and this time, I'd be like ‘okay great, can I talk to somebody who can resolve this issue?' And they said no, nobody's available.”
If your pet was registered with Save This Life, Sarah Hammel with the Austin Humane Society wants to stress it will be up to the pet owner to get the chip registered with another company.
“24PetWatch, AKC Reunite, Home Again. These are all companies that have been around for a really long time, that have a good reputation in the industry,” Hammel said.
It is taking strides to being a loving pet parent when all else fails.
“[It] shows the flaws in the microchipping industry and in our pet safety that just … there's this huge gap that doesn't feel good and I was totally unaware that it existed before,” Stevens said.
Another resource pet owners can use is freepetchipregistry.com, which is a 24/7 microchip registry and recovery service.
