Pet Identification
Every human gets an identification or social security number when they are born and so should your pet! The most common form is a pet registration tag that can be found on the pet's collar, but now there are more permanent ways of pet identification.
Registration tags: This is how your county recognizes your pet, so this is the place to start when it comes to pet identification. Plus, through yearly renewals, the county keeps track of required vaccinations and changes of address for the safety of all pets in the area. One of the downfalls in the reliability of tags to identify your pet is that many owners take them off and they can easily fall off a roaming pet.
ID Tattoos: This a permanent number marking placed on your pet’s inner ear or inner thigh. When the number is placed into a registration system it will correspond to your name and address. The tattoos do have some downfalls, one of which is that is a procedure which must be performed under anesthesia by a veterinarian. Also, some tattoos fade over time and sometimes hair growth covers the tattoo which can make identifying your pet in an emergency by a stranger more difficult.
Micro-chips: The most common pet identification system growing across the US shelter by shelter is micro-chipping. Veterinarians can do this painlessly and easily by injecting a tiny chip the size of a grain of rice in to scruff of your pet’s neck. The chip contains a number which belongs to a national computer registry. If your pet is found by strangers, they can take the animal to a shelter where he can be scanned. The number in the microchip will correspond to your name and address. Most shelters across the US provide this service to all animals that end up there so when you adopt your pet, it is automatically part of your adoption fee. The only downfall to micro-chipping is if your pet ends up somewhere where there is no scanner to identify your pet. In this instance, of course your pet will have his up-to-date tags on in which case he can be easily identified by county staff!