The microchip uses radio-frequency identification

As many pets go missing each year, a charitable organization seeks to help Hernando County residents keep track of their furry companions

The microchip uses radio-frequency identification, a technology developed by the Digital Angel Corporation and is made to facilitate the recovery of pets, said Julie Lux, spokesperson for Schering-Plough Corporation. Once the microchip is embedded, a scanner is waved over the pet that picks up an ID number. Should someone find a missing pet and bring it to a vet or shelter, they can identify the animal by its ID number and contact the company which then matches it to pre-registered information and afterwards contacts the owner, said Lux.

Tainted food moves beyond pets

“People are surprised that the FDA doesn’t have the power to mandate recalls, because they keep hearing the word but then read that they are really only voluntary recalls.”Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois Chemically tainted pet-food ingredients from China, believed to have sickened or killed thousands of American pets, entered the U.S. human food chain — some through a Kansas hog operation.

The Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that chickens and hogs that ate contaminated pet food have been processed and most likely eaten by humans

It’s the nightmare of pet lovers everywhere.

Fido or Whiskers gets lost, is scooped up by animal thieves, then sold to be dissected in a university research lab.

The Humane Society of the United States estimates that every year middlemen known as “Class B” animal dealers round up about 18,000 dogs and cats through flea markets and free-to-good-home ads and sell them to laboratories and university research labs.
In the process, it says, lost pets are rounded up, too.

Now that Congress has undergone a change in leadership, the animal advocacy group hopes lawmakers will make it illegal for “Class B” dealers to sell “random source” cats and dogs to research labs.