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Author Topic: My cat has a microchip
Lima Bean
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posted 22 November 2002 10:33 AM      Profile for Lima Bean   Author's Homepage        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Toronto Cat Rescue insisted on it. He's been implanted with an identification chip that holds, I presume, my information. They say it's the most effective method of identifying a cat, that tattoos are out because they fade and the records for them aren't universally distributed. They say it's my best assurance that I'll get him back if I lose him somehow.

I'm having tremendous feelings of regret for having let them do it. I think he's more a test subject than a well-protected pet now. I don't know anything at all about the company that produces the chips, keeps the records, and ostensibly helps track me down if someone finds my cat somewhere. I don't know if they keep the information to themselves. I don't know what the chip really does....

It seems like it was a bad idea to let them put the thing in him. Isn't this something they'd like to do with people some day? Aren't we just offering up a free sample group by letting them chip our pets en masse? It's my understanding that the Humane Society, Annex Cat rescue and TCR all insist upon the chip--all in the name of our pets' security....


From: s | Registered: Aug 2002  |  IP: Logged
Smith
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posted 22 November 2002 10:47 AM      Profile for Smith     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Personally, I don't have a problem with it - I want to get my cat chipped before I try to move out of my apartment with her. It's not a substitute for a collar, but at least then if I lose her I have some chance of getting her back...

When they start doing it to people, then I'll get upset.


From: Muddy York | Registered: Oct 2002  |  IP: Logged
Lima Bean
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posted 22 November 2002 10:52 AM      Profile for Lima Bean   Author's Homepage        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
But do you suspect at all that this is, as they say around here, 'the thin edge of the wedge'?

If it works so well with cats, they might have a pretty strong argument for doing it to people, no?


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Smith
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posted 22 November 2002 10:56 AM      Profile for Smith     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Yeah, but (right or wrong) animals are still basically treated as property. They don't have human rights. They don't have a legal right to go where they want to, and they never really have.

So I have a right to know where my cat is. I can keep her in captivity, even, and I do (she doesn't normally leave my apartment). We aren't allowed to do this to people.

There was some talk of doing it to small children. That I find disturbing.


From: Muddy York | Registered: Oct 2002  |  IP: Logged
swirrlygrrl
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posted 22 November 2002 11:06 AM      Profile for swirrlygrrl     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Lima - did they tell you that you should have your kitty regularly checked to make sure the chip hasn't "migrated"? Whatever they like to think, these things are not foolproof.

I don't have a huge problem with the things (both my mommy's dogs are chipped), or see it as the thin end of the wedge, but perhaps I am not paranoid (or vigilant) enough.

Are you staring at me??????


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Lima Bean
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posted 22 November 2002 11:10 AM      Profile for Lima Bean   Author's Homepage        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Yeah, that's kinda what I'm afraid of.

Cuz once the chip's in there, you can't get it out again. If a baby gets one he or she will have it for life.

And is it a homing beacon, or just an implanted name tag? Does it pick up information in addition to storing what they originally put on it? What the heck is it???

Poor, poor, marked Harvey...

(Admittedly, I am quite paranoid about my personal information and privacy. Just seems like it's actually the final frontier. And we all know what they did to the frontiers... )

[ November 22, 2002: Message edited by: Lima Bean ]


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Tommy Shanks
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posted 22 November 2002 11:33 AM      Profile for Tommy Shanks     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I'm all in faviour of these things being used on animals, old-people, children and anyother piece of valuable property.

One caveat though, they should beep loudly and incessently, repeat the name of the implantee, and be combined with a 40-line bar code tattooed on the recipents ass.

Seriously though, for pets, friends of ours were able to re-coup their lost cat pretty quicky. He was turned into a vet (not literally), scanned, and the vet called them 20 minutes after he was dropped off. A lot better than searching shelters and pounds.


From: Toronto | Registered: Sep 2002  |  IP: Logged
swirrlygrrl
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posted 22 November 2002 11:39 AM      Profile for swirrlygrrl     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
The bar code example is fairly accurate - if its scanned, it gives out information. It does not allow spy sattelites to read Harvey's thoughts or track his movements. But if it could....

Meow meow meow meow, meow meow meow meow, meow meow meow meow, meow meow meow meow. Meow, meow, meow!


From: the bushes outside your house | Registered: Feb 2002  |  IP: Logged
pogge
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posted 22 November 2002 11:42 AM      Profile for pogge   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Lima Bean: And is it a homing beacon, or just an implanted name tag? Does it pick up information in addition to storing what they originally put on it? What the heck is it???

It's not a homing beacon. It's just a read-only chip that contains information on the animal in question. And, at least in the city where I live, the information isn't stored in a central database.

We had occasion recently to ask just this question of the local Animal Control people. If they want the information when a lost animal turns up, they have to rescan the chip to get it.


From: Why is this a required field? | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
skdadl
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posted 22 November 2002 11:59 AM      Profile for skdadl     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I've been mostly in favour of the chips. Where my cats are concerned, I plead guilty to being ultra-possessive and over-protective, and I also have seen a vet identify a mystery cat very fast from its chip -- to me, that security outweighs any other worry I might have about information on me.

What I'm not sure of is the current source of the chips and the stored information. It's a private company that has taken over the field, yes? They seem very far away to me, and the whole business is expensive (wait till you have to buy a replacement tag, signalling that the cat is chipped -- they cost!). I'd be a lot happier if there were some sort of vet-central repository for the info -- maybe something run out of Guelph.

Or maybe I'm wrong -- as I say, any vet scanning any cat seems to be able to come up with the info pretty quickly.


From: gone | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
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posted 22 November 2002 12:03 PM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I fully plan to microchip my kitties. I think it's a great idea.
From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Lima Bean
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posted 22 November 2002 12:11 PM      Profile for Lima Bean   Author's Homepage        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
It's a private company, in my Harvey's chip's case anyway. They're called PetNet, or something like that, and it is a central repository of pet owner information. Online, even.

It's all very cool that they can scan and identify and return a lost & then found pet so quickly, but I can't help but be concerned about the privacy aspects of the scenario.

And also about what we'll all do when they want to chip our offspring too....


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Michelle
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posted 22 November 2002 12:14 PM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I don't think people will want to chip our offspring, and even if they want to, they won't be able to.

I don't like the idea of my name and address and phone number being on a database either, but let's face it, it's likely on a hundred other ones, and at least this one will help me get my cats back if they get lost.


From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Tommy_Paine
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posted 22 November 2002 12:27 PM      Profile for Tommy_Paine     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
I want to get my cat chipped

I've been sorely tempted to do this myself.

So much so, I checked with the city, and they assured me that in London, only flora can be treated thus, anything else will get you in trouble with the law.

Canada, there's a law against everything here, it seems.


From: The Alley, Behind Montgomery's Tavern | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Smith
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posted 22 November 2002 01:09 PM      Profile for Smith     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Hee hee hee. Ketchup cat chips.
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Michelle
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posted 22 November 2002 01:18 PM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Why not give your ex custody of the cat, Tommy? Let HER rent the chipper!
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Tommy_Paine
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posted 23 November 2002 05:06 AM      Profile for Tommy_Paine     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
She should have, really.

At the time she bought Zoetheevilcatfromthedeepestpitsofhell, we already had a cat, Shadow, and of course Tasha our German Shepard. In fact, when I said "no" to my ex about getting another cat, it was one of the few times I ever actually said "no".

I was ignored. As it turns out, with losing Shadow to a virus and Tasha to spinal myalopthia, Zoetheevilcatfromthedeepestpitsofhell is our only pet-- discounting the semi-wild colony of sparrows in the back yard.

When my ex and I separated, the first thing she did was to go out and buy a cat for herself. A couple of months ago, my eldest rescued a starving kitten from the street, so now my ex has two.

My girls are pressuring me hard for another dog.

They don't know how much I'd like one. And, they don't understand how, even almost two years after I held Tasha for the last time and told her she was a good dog, and closed her eyes for her, how I'm really, really not up to it yet.

So, Zoetheevilcatfromthedeepestpitsofhell will stay for a while.


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Trisha
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posted 23 November 2002 05:28 AM      Profile for Trisha     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Back to implanting of microchips in living creatures, some time early this year the news was full of writeups concerning a family who has volunteered to be the first to have these implanted in the entire family. The technology is ready but all the testing was not completed at that time because of problems of possible migration of the chip. I don't recall if we discussed this at the time but somehow think we might have. I don't really know how to search for the possible thread.
From: Thunder Bay, Ontario | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
skdadl
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posted 23 November 2002 10:39 AM      Profile for skdadl     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
We did discuss it, Trisha, and as I recall, we were all just purely horrified.

I think that chipping people is still pretty exotic, but you're right: it's being done.

What has proceeded apace much much more quickly is the radio collars (ankle-collars, I think) that are now commonly being put on parolees in the U.S. Maybe their use has spread further than that -- I think I read that that nice guy from Quebec who was being held in jail in Maine for buying gas at his local station (which just happened to be half-over the international border) might have had to wear a radio anklet if he'd been let out on bail. That's not a parolee: that's someone who's only been charged, not convicted.

[ November 23, 2002: Message edited by: skdadl ]


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jeff house
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posted 23 November 2002 04:08 PM      Profile for jeff house     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I am not quite up on the details, but I understand that in the US, a new law will enter into force next year requiring all cell phone companies to include a chip which will allow the bearer's location to be accessed at all times, whether using the phone or not.

The information can then be saved on computer, so that "they" will be able to ascertain your location at all times, present and past.

The phones so equipped will be sold worldwide.

Even now, your location can be computed when you are actually using your cell phone. In Toronto,
a bunch of nasties were convicted of first degree murder in large part because their cell phone records showed them converging on, then diverging from, the homicide scene at the precise moments when the killing occurred.

So, maybe people will be able to buy their cat a cell phone, and use that?


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skdadl
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posted 23 November 2002 04:25 PM      Profile for skdadl     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Although I do not have a cellphone, all my cats have a phone number on their tags -- well, given proliferating bureaucracy, several phone numbers on several tags on what are turning into charm-necklets.

As a friend says, that's so the other cats can call 'em.


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Trisha
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posted 23 November 2002 06:23 PM      Profile for Trisha     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Those ankle collars are being used on people on house arrest or conditional releases as well. I recall seeing news articles concerning convicts who were allowed to hold jobs being searched down using them when they over-stretched their allowed travel time. If they are being used in Canada, it isn't highly publicized.

More and more, the focus on terrorism is making the government look for better ways to keep track of the population. There was an old book called "Logan's Run" that had this tracing as it's main theme. It was very much a "people over 30 are useless" type of theme, but approached the problems of tracking and euthenasia very well for its time.

[ November 23, 2002: Message edited by: Trisha ]


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Tommy_Paine
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posted 23 November 2002 06:35 PM      Profile for Tommy_Paine     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
What was it Lazurus Long said about stuff like this? Something like, when it became necessary for a government to keep track of your identity, it was time to find another planet.
From: The Alley, Behind Montgomery's Tavern | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
sheep
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posted 25 November 2002 03:51 PM      Profile for sheep     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
That cat chip holds nothing but a number. The vet, or whomever, scans the number, then calls up a database which matches the number against their records to find out your name, address, etc. The chip itself doesn't hold any data other than that number.

I suppose if you're really paranoid about security you can give PetNet false information, and if your cat is lost, immediately phone them up and correct their records. Then give them a fake one again when you find your cat. But it seems to me to be a lot of trouble just to avoid having your name in a database. I hear that the phone company, the gas company, and the motor vehicles department tracks the same kind of information about you.

So far I've rescued two strays that were returned to their owners within an hour of having the chip read by the vet, so I think it's a pretty good idea and I think that Toronto Cat Rescue is right to insist upon it. Actually I just adopted two cats from them last week and I was happy to see the adoption fee included both neutering and a microchip.


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WingNut
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posted 25 November 2002 03:53 PM      Profile for WingNut   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
That cat chip holds nothing but a number.

Not true. It feeds everything you do and say back to a supercomputer database maintained by the CIA. Your cat is a mole.

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Mandos
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posted 25 November 2002 04:05 PM      Profile for Mandos   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Not a vole?
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Lima Bean
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posted 25 November 2002 04:13 PM      Profile for Lima Bean   Author's Homepage        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Hey, don't joke about stuff like that WingNut. That's exactly what I'm afraid of!

(I hope you were joking...)


From: s | Registered: Aug 2002  |  IP: Logged
sheep
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posted 25 November 2002 05:31 PM      Profile for sheep     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
In the interests of national security Wingnut, I would like to extend you an invitation to come over and meet my cat
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radiorahim
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posted 10 December 2002 12:56 AM      Profile for radiorahim     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Low-powered VHF radio transmitters have been attached to animals in wildlife studies in order to track their movements.

They've been attached to polar bears, wolves and even once I heard to skunks in Scarborough!

The critical problem for any transmitting device is powering it and with very low power you can't get much range.

For those of you with cellular telephones though, you make it a whole lot easier for "big brother" to track you down.

The microchip that's implanted in animals is just a data storage device. You have to have some means to retrieve the data. BTW my cat has one too!


From: a Micro$oft-free computer | Registered: Jun 2002  |  IP: Logged

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