THE ID MICROCHIP with OPTIONAL FREEZE BRAND!

[By Douglas Novick, DVM]

PROTECT YOUR HORSE AGAINST THEFT!

The Problem:

Hundreds of Horses are Stolen in California Each Year!

The Protection:

The ID Microchip with an Optional Freeze Brand. By implanting an ID microchip, you make it harder for the thieves to sell your horse and easier for government officials to identify your horse.

About the ID Microchip
The size of a single grain of rice, the ID microchip is a safe, inexpensive and permanent method of identifying your horse. Already used on thousands of horses and over 2 million animals, the ID microchip is expected to become the standard for animal identification.

The ID microchip is available to horse owners in California by veterinarian Dr. Douglas Novick.

HOW DOES THE ID MICROCHIP WORK?

The tiny microchip, the size of a grain of rice is inserted into a ligament in the back of your horse's neck. The procedure takes about three minutes. The chip is encoded with a 10-digit number that is never duplicated. A hand held scanner passed over the chip reads and displays the identifying number. The number and your horse's description, along with your name, address, and phone number, are registered into a nationwide database. If your horse is stolen, this ID microchip will let government officials identify your horse from all others that match its description (e.g. bay thoroughbreds or chestnut quarter horses)

Unlike a tattoo which can fade and blur or a freeze brand symbol which can be hard to interpret, the ID number encoded by the chip will last for over 25 years reading out a 10-digit number that will not change.

WHAT HAPPENS IF MY HORSE IS STOLEN?

At the time your horse's chip is implanted, you will be given an 800 number to call should your horse be stolen. First report the theft to your local police or sheriff's department. Be sure to get a case number from them. Then call the 800 number - open 24 hours a day. As a registered member of this nationwide database, calling will activate a nationwide network involved in finding stolen horses. The information about your horse's chip ID number and description and your information will be sent immediately to appropriate government officials in California and around the nation.

You will be provided contacts for local area networking including information about the location of auctions and horse dealers in your area.

Stolen horses change hands many times. They may be sold through public auctions and unknowingly be purchased by slaughterhouses that process horse for horsemeat for human consumption overseas. The transaction can happen within a few hours to a couple of days. Efforts are currently underway to place the scanners in many of the equine slaughterhouses. Some already have them.

In California all horses leaving the state to be slaughtered are inspected by a state appointed Brand Inspector. The Brand Inspectors have agreed to scan horses leaving California matching your horse's description once they are notified that a horse containing an ID microchip has been stolen.

HOW WILL ANY ONE KNOW MY HORSE HAS THE ID CHIP INSIDE?

Without a scanner, the ID microchip is undetectable from the outside to protect the aesthetics of your horse. At the time of the microchip implantation, Dr Novick will give you the opportunity to identify to potential thieves and government officials that your horse has an ID microchip by:

Cost

The fee for implanting the ID Microchip Optional Freeze Brand, Warning Sign for your Stall Door and first year's registration in the database is less than $140 (as of January 2005). Fees do not include travel charges and change over times. Special arrangements may be made for groups and horses implanted outside of Dr. Novick's routine practice area. Answers to other commonly asked questions.

Can the ID microchip be deactivated?

No. The chips contain no battery and are activated and respond only to a radio signal from the hand held scanners.

Is there any way to remove the chip?

While technically possible, the effort needed to find something size of a single grain of rice in something the size of a horses neck has been shown to be extremely difficult thus making it not worth the time and expense for a potential thief. It is so safe; it can be left in your horse permanently.

CAN A HORSE HAVE A REACTION TO THE CHIPS? WILL IT CAUSE ANY INJURY TO MY HORSE,S NECK? WILL IT HAMPER HIS PERFORMANCE?

Experience on thousands of horses and over two million other animals have shown the chip to be safe and effective. It is encased in medically tested materials that should not affect your horse's performance. The chip is inserted within a sterilized needle resulting in the minimum possibility of infection.

Where have the ID chips been use before?

Included among the places the ID microchips are currently used are the horses of the Mounties in Canada, on mustangs in the United States, the cavalry horses in Spain and over 70,000 horses in Europe. Thousands of horses in Texas, Louisiana and Missouri have been implanted.

How do I set up an appointment?

Call Dr. Douglas Novick at 800-998-4650

 

Dr. Douglas Novick is an equine veterinarian practicing in the San Francisco Bay Area. His practice is limited to the treatment of horses with special interests in equine lameness, equine dentistry and reproduction. He is also the first veterinarian in Northern California to implant horses with ID Microchips with optional freeze brands as a method of preventing horse theft.

 

See more at www.novickdvm.com

 

(C) 2004 Douglas Novick, DVM- This article is copyrighted. It is licensed for personal use only. Any re-use, duplication, re-transmission via electronic or other means without the expressed written permission of the author, Douglas Novick, is strictly forbidden.