Hawaii County Animal Care and Conservation will hold its second free microchipping and licensing event at Volcano on Saturday.
Hawaii County Animal Care and Conservation will hold its second free microchipping and licensing event at Volcano on Saturday.
About 90% of the pets taken in by Animal Control are not microchipped and are often extremely difficult to find, said Matthew Rannells of Animal Control.
“One of the key elements to getting returns to these owners quickly is registration, microchipping, and education about registering those microchips,” Runnels said. “If the pet is not microchipped or the microchip is not registered, we do not have a standard to initiate a return.”
The agency takes in more than 250 animals a month on average, and the two facilities combined have 137 spaces for dogs and 42 spaces for cats.
The average length of stay for animals is approximately 45 days, and 40% of those animals end their stay by euthanasia.
Registered microchipped pets have historically gone home with their owners and only spend an average of about 48 hours at the facility, Runnels said.
As of January 2022, the law requires pet owners to implant a microchip ID in their dogs and cats. Animal organizations should also microchip all stray dogs and cats in their care who do not have a microchip.
The law also requires owners to register their microchip number and name and up-to-date contact information with a microchip registration company. Hawaii County uses a national registry at my24pet.com.
To help alleviate the cost of microchipping pets, Animal Control is using grant funding to host free microchipping and licensing events for communities in the heart of every neighborhood on Hawai’i Island.
The next event is scheduled for this Saturday at the Cooper Center at Volcano from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Owners are asked to secure their animals before bringing them in.
