Microchip Company Shutdown Leaves 30,000 Charlotte Pets Untraceable

The abrupt shutdown of the Save This Life microchip registration company has erased critical tracking information, leaving thousands of Charlotte's lost pets impossible to locate. The American Animal Hospital Association monitors these situations while encouraging owners to keep records up-to-date. Now, local shelters are helping manage the re-registration rush. To help with the change, Stand for Animals posted simple instructions online. Their website guides owners through moving to new tracking systems.

Stand for Animals clinic now faces the task of fixing registration records for 30,000 pets. While the microchips remain active inside the pets, scanning them no longer reveals owner details.

“That company had microchips registered to pets and their information as part of their database, and when they shut down, that database is gone. A lot of pets are kind of unregistered now,” Austin Webb, Assistant Manager at Stand for Animals, said to wbtv.com.

No replacement chips are needed, just quick action from pet owners to transfer to another system. The switch takes minutes but means the difference between finding or losing a pet forever.

These problems aren't new to pet owners. In 2019, AVID Identification Systems went down, cutting off access to countless pet records nationwide.

This problem goes well beyond Charlotte, affecting hundreds of thousands of pets across the country. Research shows that properly registered microchips greatly improve the chances of reuniting lost pets with their owners.

Local vets emphasize yearly registration checks as essential upkeep. They're urging all owners to check their service provider's status right away.