ID Chips...

[freeman@netcom.com (Jay Reynolds Freeman)]

Jim Choate says:

> I question the validity of the chips use, seems to me that tatooing the ear
> of the pet and placing this in a database would be much more efficient and a
> LOT less expensive.

    I suspect the chip insertion uses vastly less expensive labor, and
probably less expensive gadgetry, as well.  There might also be a memory-size
problem; I have a cat with an ID number tatooed in one ear -- about the only
place where it is reasonably visible on casual inspection.  The number is
about nine years old, and has four digits.  One or two more and there would
be trouble reading it.

    (The cat is a survivor of feline leukemia research at U. C. Davis; the
ID dates from that program.  There's a program whereby surviving animals
from the Davis labs are placed out.)
                                                -- Jay Freeman