Thousands of pet microchips faulty

Oh no.

Thousands of pets across the country could be walking around with microchips that do not work. Without a functioning microchip, enabling pets to be electronically identified, lost animals may never be returned to their owners.

One WA veterinary surgeon said in the past month he’s had about six pets come in with faulty microchips.

“The chips have been failing over the past two years and we think there’s been up to 5000,” said the Wembley Veterinary Hospital’s Garry Edgar.

It’s worth noting that Dr Garry Edgar is/was? the President of the Australian Veterinary Association in WA, so he’s not just some random vet stirring up rubbish, but someone who understands the implications to pet owners.

The manufacturer are aware of the problem:

Virbac general manager Bruce Bell said he was aware of the faults.

“We have an arrangement in place with vets to replace the chips for no charge,” Mr Bell said.

“The program will be maintained as long as necessary to make sure the Back Home chips are working.”

Cats or dog microchipped with a Back Home BioTtec chip after June 2010, may have a faulty chip and owners are advised to have them checked.

Which is surprising to hear, there is no mention of this recall on the Virbac website’s microchipping section:

However a search on google for ‘Virbac Back Home BioTtec fault’ did reveal a letter being sent out in the UK after the fault was identified, but that there doesn’t seem to have been the same action here:

There was also information sent out in April this year in New Zealand:

The owner of Grey Lynn’s VetCare animal clinic, Dr Alex Melrose, said he scanned most animals and noticed a few chips were not reading.

“Initially, the chips work and a lot of these pets were coming back over the next year or so and suddenly, bang, it stops working. After a while it started to become apparent that it was only Virbac chips that were failing.”

The Companion Animal Register has confirmed 97 per cent of the microchips needing replacement were made by one brand. The register replaced 1610 chips between June last year and February this year.

So in conclusion – microchips are very, very good, but they’re not infallible. And designing an animal management system around the idea that they are, puts our pet’s lives in danger.