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SAVE A LIFE - - - YOURS AND THAT OF YOUR COMPANION ANIMAL

By Gail Paparian

My husband passed away sixteen months ago. Family and friends have been wonderful, yet I don’t think I would have survived without my canine companion - Sandy.

Sandy spent most of her life in shelters before she came into our lifes. There are two bits of good news: 1) we found each other, and 2) Sandy had been micro-chipped. Nowhere has the need of pet identification been more obvious than during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

It is my understanding that more than 50,000 animals in the New Orleans area were separated from their human companions; many of them never to be reunited again, for a variety of reasons. Some, like death, are unalterable. Micro-chipping one’s companion animal gives them a voice if they are lost or stolen. I think this relatively simple process, while done in some places, should now be done for all animals.

While the fallout and suffering from the ravages of Hurricane Katrina will be felt for years to come, a positive result would be the implementation of a communication’s system for pets which includes the insertion of a small chip, about the size of a grain of rice, into the animal. Universal scanners can “read” the human contact information.

I have become more aware of the benefits of this process through several friends. As I understand it, the chipping process is pretty straight forward. The “glitch” comes in the somewhat imperfect database/identification process. We need to clean this up and make it work: NOW!

This is where we need legislation on the federal or state level. We need one functioning database system where people can go to seek out their pets; be it by phone or the internet.

Hurricane Rita came too quickly on the heels of Katrina. Many valid lessons were learned in warp-speed time including, but not limited to, allowing pets to be evacuated with their human companions. If I knew how to affect this simple process, I would have already done it! I believe what we need now is some forward-thinking legislator to take the bone and run with it. Any takers?

(Record Gazette 9/30/05)