THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, June 26, 1995 TAG: 9506260063
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY JENNIFER CHRISTMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BAUM BAY LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
An Outer Banks animal rights activist is urging Dare County to chip away at its stray-animal problem.
Microchips inserted under a pet's skin can help owners find lost pets and reduce the number of strays that are euthanized, says Erika Seybert, who runs the nonprofit Outer Banks Spay and Neuter Fund.
Microchips are about the size of a rice grain and are inserted between the shoulder blades of pets. A scanner electronically processes information from the chip and flashes a number. That number can be reported to a toll-free telephone line that will locate the pet's owner.
``Microchipping is finally a way for pet owners and animal control services to have some accountability,'' Seybert said this week from her Baum Bay home.
But so far, Dare County's Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals group has not invested in the microchip idea - a decision, Seybert says, that is causing some animals to be euthanized unnecessarily.
``The current system the county has for dealing with strays is euthanasia,'' Seybert said. ``They find animals, and if they are not retrieved or adopted in a certain amount of time, they are killed. If it worked, fine. But it doesn't - or we wouldn't still have the problem.
``The kindness animals need is more than just a humane death.''
Seybert, who raises funds to help people spay and neuter pets and strays, has microchips inserted in all of the pets she works with. Dr. D.D. Shumway of the Outer Banks Animal Hospital does the chipping with a scanner and a supply of microchips from AVID, a company that makes the chips.
``Until the county takes action, unfortunately, it might not help if your pet is chipped,'' Seybert says. ``If your pet is picked up by the county, and they don't have a scanner, it won't help.''
Unless the SPCA gets a scanner, workers at the county's animal shelter on Roanoke Island won't be able to tell whether an animal has a chip.
Edith Camp, chair of the county SPCA shelter operations committee, says the SPCA is open to the idea of chipping. But the nonprofit group will not commit to a system until some kinks are worked out, Camp said. At least four companies make and distribute microchips and scanners. None of the companies has devised a scanner that will register all brands of chips, Camp said.
``Having a scanner that will not read all chips is not going to do much to solve anything,'' she said.
Camp cited another problem: Chips have been found to migrate from between the shoulder blades to other areas such as the abdomen.
Microchips vary in price. But the cost to insert a chip into a pet is about $20.
``Microchipping is still very new,'' Camp said. ``Our position is that we're waiting for a quality product without bugs.''
Until then, the county SPCA will proceed with its current lost-and-found policy. From January to May, 318 cats were admitted to the SPCA shelter. Of those, four were returned to owners, 38 were adopted and 260 were euthanized. Of the 208 dogs admitted, 70 were returned to owners, 52 were adopted and 68 were euthanized. (The numbers don't add up to the totals because of other methods of dealing with animals, and because of carry-over from previous months.)
The shelter returns so few pets, Camp said, because the owners often do not report their animals missing.
``The numbers are not good. And the shelter certainly is not happy about it,'' Camp said. ``But no matter what efforts we take, it's still an owner's responsibility - it's not our responsibility alone.
``If someone is not looking for their pet, there is nothing we can do.''
Seybert says that waiting for the owners to report lost pets is not enough action on the part of SPCA officials.
``There's this attitude that if people lose a pet, they should just try harder to find it,'' Seybert said. ``No. The county should make it easier.
``If you have a store, you don't say, `Well, if they want to shop at my store, they should try harder to get here.' '' by CNB