Pet owners should double-check microchips after a company shuts down

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – Save This Life is a microchip and pet recovery system that has abruptly shut down.

The company provided microchips that came with an aluminum ID tag and number. If someone found your pet they could text the number on the tag which would contact the owner directly.

A local veterinarian hospital administrator says this can cause concern for those looking for lost pets.

“So any pet that currently has one of these microchips, if they are found now, you can scan it and the microchip is going to work, but the number won’t come back as registered to anybody, so you won’t be able to search for that pet,” says Mallory Davis, Elizabethtown Veterinary Hospital.

Alicia Mendez is a pet owner in Wilmington and one of her pets has a chip. Mendez says she is unsure if her dog was registered under the company ‘Save This Life’.

“It’s really heartbreaking, there are issues in the past with microchips not working,” says Mendez.

Mendez says she prefers to use GPS collars where she can accurately track location from her phone.

WECT has reached out to 20 local animal hospitals and found only three used the ‘Save This Life’ microchips: Elizabethtown Veterinary Hospital, Myrtle Grove Animal Hospital and Topsail Animal Hospital. Elizabethtown Veterinary Hospital says they were unaware of the change.

“We went to register a couple of microchips and couldn’t access the website at all. We couldn’t get any response to emails or anything like that,” says Davis.

Davis says pet owners will not have to get their animals chipped again because they’re universal and just need to be re-registered with another company. Owners are advised to find the number by checking adoption or medical records.

They can use that number to see what company they’re registered with using this website. Then you’ll want to choose a new company to register the microchip under.

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