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Woman who never stopped updating her lost dog's chip reunites with him after 11y

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Re: Woman who never stopped updating her lost dog's chip reunites with him after 11y

#51
post #48

I don't think it's legally required for vets to check chips whenever new "owners" take them in for a visit. I've been holding out hope for reuniting with my missing cat Salt, but wherever he is, he's happily in someone else's living room. And I doubt the microchip will bring him back anytime soon. Sadly cat snatching is a real thing that's happened to me possibly twice. The first time was confirmed beyond a doubt; I…

> The risks come with the territory To be clear here, the “territory” here is letting your pet free roam off of your property and expecting everybody else to be cool with that?

Yes. Believe it or not, that's fine for cats. "Everybody else" is by far the biggest risk. Not cars, not animals.

It's always so frustrating when you've been doing something for 15 years, speak from experience, and then someone comes along and says "Well, that's bad!" Sure. Meanwhile, my cat comes home happy and healthy each night, unless "everybody else" decides to steal him in the guise of doing him a favor.

Verified microchips during vet appointments would cancel out this exploit.

Re: Woman who never stopped updating her lost dog's chip reunites with him after 11y

#52
post #49
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The risks come with the territory To be clear here, the “territory” here is letting your pet free roam off of your property and expecting everybody else to be cool with that?

Exactly. Please keep cats indoors - they kill all the local wildlife. I have a cat and it stays indoors exclusively.

This is a widely-cited myth, and almost impossible to measure in practice. What does "all the local wildlife" even mean? Is the threat here that birds are going to go extinct because of cats? Not likely, and the burden of proof is on the people repeating this mistaken belief.

Using "think of the birds" as a justification for imprisoning your cat for their entire lives is also pretty crummy. It's called wildlife because they exist in the wilderness. Even if cats kill a large number of birds, so what? Those birds don't have a happy, loving home with emotional bonds to an actual human.

If you think this logic is flawed, explain why you're fine with flies dying but not birds. I bet you've swatted a few in your time.

Re: Woman who never stopped updating her lost dog's chip reunites with him after 11y

#53
post #19

> her beloved pit bull, Forty-Cal, had been missing for 11 years. > He's super docile and friendly. Always has been. Are pit bulls known for being docile?

Not typically - but when it's called Forty Cal, maybe? That's what, one bell pepper?

> Animal Care and Control Team (ACCT) Philly sent her some pics of the pooch in question.

100 percent this dog is named after a bullet.

Because thats how Philly rolls.

In case you dont know:

HitchBOT got murdered in Philly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HitchBOT

Bill Burr's Philly set: https://www.reddit.com/r/cowboys/comments/1il5msw/in_honor_o...

Don't get me wrong Philly is great, but Philly is... something.

Re: Woman who never stopped updating her lost dog's chip reunites with him after 11y

#54

I don't think it's legally required for vets to check chips whenever new "owners" take them in for a visit. I've been holding out hope for reuniting with my missing cat Salt, but wherever he is, he's happily in someone else's living room. And I doubt the microchip will bring him back anytime soon. Sadly cat snatching is a real thing that's happened to me possibly twice. The first time was confirmed beyond a doubt; I…

Vets already have enough to deal with you'd be more likely to end up with undesirable outcomes vs what you want. People would not take the animal to the vet. People would try to destroy the chip by whatever method they happen to read in facebook. People would try to maliciously make changes to the database. Etc etc

Re: Woman who never stopped updating her lost dog's chip reunites with him after 11y

#55

I don't think it's legally required for vets to check chips whenever new "owners" take them in for a visit. I've been holding out hope for reuniting with my missing cat Salt, but wherever he is, he's happily in someone else's living room. And I doubt the microchip will bring him back anytime soon. Sadly cat snatching is a real thing that's happened to me possibly twice. The first time was confirmed beyond a doubt; I…

Vets already have enough to deal with you'd be more likely to end up with undesirable outcomes vs what you want. People would not take the animal to the vet. People would try to destroy the chip by whatever method they happen to read in facebook. People would try to maliciously make changes to the database. Etc etc

I'm not so sure. The people who snatch cats off the street think that they're doing the cat a favor. They assume the original owners won't even notice, let alone care if the cat goes missing. And they justify it with "Well, they shouldn't have let them out anyway."

The brutal reality is that pounds are overflowing with lost animals. Statistics are on your side that if you snatch any given cat that you see, you'll likely be doing it a favor. But cats with collars are a different story. If people see that they're owned, they should keep their hands off. Unfortunately that doesn't stop some fanatics.

Re: Woman who never stopped updating her lost dog's chip reunites with him after 11y

#56

> her beloved pit bull, Forty-Cal, had been missing for 11 years. > He's super docile and friendly. Always has been. Are pit bulls known for being docile?

> Are pit bulls known for being docile?

Not really. Even "old school" working catch dogs in this breed may require a break stick to get the dog to release game. In addition, the dogs are strong.

And that's really the crux of the problem.

Dogs will be dogs. They can be the nicest animal on the planet, but at some point a dog will bite you--maybe you did something stupid, maybe the dog accidentally got underfoot and got kicked, maybe the dog is just sick, maybe something agitated the dog, whatever. A bite will happen. The problem with pit bulls is that when they bite the damage is much more problematic than with other breeds.

And this is the real issue. Because of their strength, pit bulls (and a small number of other breeds) account for a disproportionate amount of deaths and hospitalizations relative to other breeds.

It also doesn't help that these types of dogs are disproportionately owned by jackasses.

Re: Woman who never stopped updating her lost dog's chip reunites with him after 11y

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can inject these things pretty easily. They're about the size of a grain of rice, and pretty popular in some circles.

Popular in Sweden, apparently: https://geeksaroundglobe.com/6000-swedes-implant-chips-in-sk... And when they used it as a digital identifier to check for the Covid-vaccination status, of course all the wormbrained screamed that "Covid certificate mandate leads to Swedish government microchipping its citizens!'.

Is this how the whole "Bill Gates is putting 5G chips in the Covid vaccine" meme got started?

Re: Woman who never stopped updating her lost dog's chip reunites with him after 11y

#58

These microchips are amazing technology. I highly highly encourage all you pet lovers to obtain one for your little homie. You never know when you’ll need it.

24 EU countries have mandatory dog micro-chipping. In Belgium there is a centralized database in which the data is maintained. When I moved to the USA I thought it was very weird that it wasn't done automatically, and that there are many databases out there. In fact, one went bust a while ago: https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/microchip-company-cl... Now what? Gotta pay to have 18 digits and an address inserted…

That is upsetting for what could almost certainly be run from a SQLite database on a garbage-tier host. Presumably 99.9% of all animals are registered one time and never again queried. Could be near zero operational burden, but of course, capitalism.

Re: Woman who never stopped updating her lost dog's chip reunites with him after 11y

#59

These microchips are amazing technology. I highly highly encourage all you pet lovers to obtain one for your little homie. You never know when you’ll need it.

24 EU countries have mandatory dog micro-chipping. In Belgium there is a centralized database in which the data is maintained. When I moved to the USA I thought it was very weird that it wasn't done automatically, and that there are many databases out there. In fact, one went bust a while ago: https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/microchip-company-cl... Now what? Gotta pay to have 18 digits and an address inserted…

Coloradan with all chipped pets for decades. Not sure where you're coming from. Our friend was reunited with a cat with a chip that was lost for a 6 months. Shitting on the US is great for karma these days

Re: Woman who never stopped updating her lost dog's chip reunites with him after 11y

#60
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I took a few pit mixes out of the local humane society last summer for "Doggy Day Out", basically an opportunity for dogs who need new homes to get exposure to the community and get away from the kennel for a few hours, and they were universally friendly, sweet dogs. There's some selection bias, obviously, but their reputation is definitely overblown.

They are banned in Ontario, Canada for a good reason and banned in UK for the same reasons. The only time my dog was ever randomly attacked was a pitbull and you quickly learn talking to other dog owners how common this is. Nothing clears out a dog park like a pit bull showing up.

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