Tagb City digitizes pet ID

With free microchipping

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, June 1, (PIA) –From electronic payment in its wet market sales to transportation fares, Tagbilaran City leads again in defining the city’s digitalization directions with its ‘microchip imbeds’ in its registered pets.

Now, adopting a digital database of its pets, instead of losing the pet’s important documents and information which is physically necessary to cross boundaries, Tagbilaran City takes a leap into digitalizing pet owner’s access to pet vaccination records, schedules and track its visits to the vet, by electronically scanning the microchip imbedded in the pet, which the city gave for free.

This is a part of the services we give to Tagbilaran City residents, said mayor Jane Yap during the program launching and attended by pet-owners with their beloved animals at the City hall Atrium.

This is our priority program for responsible pet owners, the mayor shared of the pet identification program of the city government.

Implemented in partnership with Petdentity, pet micro-chipping is also adopted in few areas in the country coping with issues of dog identification.

Veterinarians said in other areas, pet micro-chipping costs between P800 and P1,000, and where local government units and pet-owners share in the costs.

But in Tagbilaran City, this is free service implemented by the Veterinary Office (CityVet) through Mayor Jane Yap, veterinarians assisting in the updating of pet records, said.

As pet owners carrying their pets arrive, they get to register their pets, fill in few updating information, which is stored in a database, and then given a packet containing the microchip to be injected to the pet.

That day, the City Vet also gave dog vaccinations against rabies and other diseases.

The pet micro-chipping program places Tagbilaran City abreast with very few areas and local government units in the country providing solutions to easy pet-identification.

By micro-chipping, pets get chip implants that contain data of the pet’s information. This can be read by a portable scanner that can detect the pet’s registration number and other relevant data, sparing the owners the discomfort of having to dig in the house documents.

It entails injecting in a microchip on the pet’s body, a single chip containing distinct information, like the dog’s registration and key data, working much better than the dog-tags, explains Dr. Janet Egos, during the launching of the city government’s free pet micro-chipping.

And with a mobile phone app, owners can access the CityVet files of the dog registration and check on the animal’s updated disease protection and vaccine status and other relevant information.

As dog tags can get ripped off while pets play, or when the owners themselves get the tags, one needs to surgically remove the micro-chip, Dr. Egos added.

Already being used in other places in the country where issues of responsible dog ownership surface, micro chipping allows authorities to reunite lost pets to their owners, through an electronic scanner hovered on the back of the pet, the scanner immediately displaying the pet’s details and the owners contacts.

Meanwhile, road accidents caused by registered dogs allows authorities to help the victims demand accountability from the pet-owners, the problem of people disclaiming their pets involved in road accidents, getting solved.

This will help identify the rightful and responsible owner of the pet, she said, adding that from the launching, teams would go around the city’s barangays to bring the services closer to the communities.

While there are already a few local governments in the Philippines adopting this through counter-parting scheme, this is the first one in Bohol, and free at that, shared City Councilor and Agriculture Committee Chairman Odysseus Glovasa. (PIA-7/Bohol)

MICRO-CHIP IMBED. Registered dogs in the city gets to be implanted with micro chips instead of dog tags, the chips containing the registration number corresponding to the dog registration and identification details would easily identify the dogs and their responsible owners, allow people to access their pet vaccination records. This will also help identify the pets rightful owners, in case when these pets are not properly cared and left out in the streets. (PIABohol)

WHO LET THE DOGS OUT? With the free microchips, authorities can now identify the dogs and their owners, who could not anymore deny if their dogs get involved in accidents. This can also facilitate the catching of unregistered dogs for population control. (PIABohol)