Originally published: Mar 9, 2013
Updated: Aug 6, 2013 (to include modifications to further clarify the paragraphs applicable only for Singapore audience)

Donna came already microchipped when we adopted her. If she ever gets lost and a good samaritan found her, the good samaritan could do one of the following:
-Inform the AVA (Agri-food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore) or SPCA
-Bring Donna to the vet to scan for microchip

This is the point where it starts to get iffy for me. Since the dog is microchipped, it must be registered to some database, but which? The AVA? According to this news article, there are at least four existing microchip registries in Singapore owned by AVA, SPCA, ASD and Pet-Call. At the point of adoption, we had not registered our new dog ownership with AVA. Donna was from a shelter that was not the SPCA or the ASD. And I just did a search on the Pet-Call database and Donna’s microchip number yielded no results, indicating that she was not registered with them.

So if Donna, choy-choy, were to get lost, will she ever be returned even if she was microchipped?

So if you have a dog, doesn’t matter where in the world you are, whether you bought the dog somewhere or adopted it from wherever, do your dog and yourself a favour, make sure of the following:

  • make sure the dog is microchipped [weggieboy has kindly given some reasons why]
  • you know your dog’s microchip number
  • when scanned, the microchip returns the number accurately
  • the ownership details when retrieved using the microchip number is accurately reflecting your contact details (NOT the previous owner)
  • these details are registered in a registry that is most accessible by most vets and animal welfare associations in your country

Since we are in Singapore, my preferred choice would be to register for an AVA license and be included in the AVA database, with updated details of the new dog ownership. Under the legislation, we are supposed to do so anyway. An AVA license will also give you more options when you need to board your dog when you are going out of the country.

But if for some reasons you are unable to do so, Pet-Call will probably be the next best alternative. This means that if anyone were to bring in your lost dog to any agency listed on their list of agents (which includes SPCA and AVA), they would be able to scan and retrieve the dog owner’s details from Sapa Industries, which owns the Pet-Call database.

Now that I have ensured that Donna’s microchip number is updated with our new ownership details with at least one of the databases, all I have to do is to ask the vet to help scan Donna’s microchip to make sure it is still working fine, the next time we go for her annual checkup. It probably will be a good time to ask the vet more about the database they have access to. I’m particularly interested to know if there is a network database that all the vets tap into or is this something that is still work in progress like the national microchip database that the news article was talking about.

Note: I am a new dog owner and not an expert on the subject. The above is what I gathered from my research. I will gladly like to hear and correct if there are any errors in the above. Thanks!

References:
-http://www.spca.org.sg/services_lost_found_pets.asp
-http://www.spca.org.sg/pressrelease/PRreport2009.pdf