What is the point of microchipping

Penny Less

Penny Less

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10 March 2009
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Just been reading that there is no national database for microchipping and the microchp.companies cannot access each others databases, so assume that unless person trying to identify stolen horse etc knows what company to contact
its a waste of time and our cash
 
also i understand that not every scanner picks up all microchips....so even if your horse is chipped if the vet or anyone else does not have a compatable scanner then it will not pick it up.

waste of time if you ask me. Mine is not chipped and I don't loose any sleep.

freezemarking is a much better way of protecting and identifying your horse.
 
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freezemarking is a much better way of protecting and identifying your horse.

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why would that be?
 
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freezemarking is a much better way of protecting and identifying your horse.

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Maybe my friend might like to know that.
Her mare was stolen 3 years ago.
She was freezemarked and chipped and her freezemark painted on her rug......taken anyway and still not recovered.
 
Believe me it is worthwhile having your horses Freezemarked and Microchipped.
The new microchipping systems recently introduced mean that the microchipping number will be placed on the equine national database.
The National Database is www.ned.uk.com
All microchips fitted for the new passport regulation can now be detected and scanned by all modern scanners as they are to the international ISO Standard DX AB.
I have been involved in the recovery of a numbr of stolen horses and I can assure you that if the horse is freezemarked and also microchipped it is a lot easier for members of the public or police force to identify it.
 
As above, provided owners inform their horses' passport issuers, then microchip numbers are recorded on the NED and fro many years now microchips have been read by universal readers.

Microchips are good, provided they are appropriately registered.
 
Having had two of mine stolen earlier this year and recovered because they had Freezemarks I can assure you that there IS a point to freezemarking. There is also evidence to show that Freezemarked horses are far less likely to be stolen in the first place. The two main freezemarking companies have recovery rates of 100% and 97%.
Microchipping I was never a fan of, I am still not, yet recently I saw how it can be useful A friend bought a Pony, microchipped. On scanning on Purchase the number did not match that in the Passport. A little searching and she found the pony she had bought was actually 8 years older than it should have been, and it's correct breeding was found. Now, if I bought a horse I liked, it wouldn't bother me too much, it's just records and paperwork, but it mattered to this person as she had bought a young pony for a reason.
Currently microchips are pointless still, but, in about 30 years time, i thnk they will clearly identify animals and link them to their correct records. With most animals microchipped by then, hopefully the chips will be standard, along with the scanners, and scanning will be regular occurance. At least this is the idea I think.
 
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in reply to your question.....

none whatsoever....exactly the same as freezemarking....

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Sadly I agree. I accompanied a friend when she took a horse to the abattoir to be PTS last month. Neither of us had been to an abattoir before. I left horrified and genuinely fearful for the safety of my own horses.

When we arrived my friend took the horse's passport (which incidentally was not in her name or address) to the office to complete the paperwork. The horse remained unseen, loaded in the trailer. No one looked at him at any point in the proceedings. Not even to compare him to his passport, let alone check him for a freezemark or microchip. The horse had to stay on the trailer until my friend was asked to unload him and lead him straight into the area where he was to be PTS. She stayed with him until it was over, then joined me by the trailer to leave. It was only then that the attending vet ran over to us to ask if he could have the horse's passport. My friend had forgotten to take it with her when she lead the horse from the trailer. The vet took it without looking at it and added it randomly to the large pile of passports he already had.

It wasn't until after I got home, that the implications of this hit me. What if the horse we'd taken had been stolen? Even in the short time I was there, big lorries were arriving and unloading batches of what looked to be the poor souls picked up cheaply from horse markets. Any one of those could have be someone's loved and missed horse or pony. Who'd know? Who checks or cares?

All my horses are chipped and freezemarked, but I am left wondering what's the flaming point. I feel completely heart-sick following that visit to that abattoir. Do horse markets do more to check the animals passing through them? I really hope so, because those passing through the markets, destined to end up with the meat-man, arent necessarily checked further down the line.
 
Believe it or not the Police National Computer, which has criminal's records, details of vehicles, stolen vehicles & stolen Plant Equipment has a facility for putting the details of stolen horses on it. The microchip & Freezemark details can be placed on there & should any horse be recovered it can be checked just like a car.
wink.gif
 
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