winston44
Member
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with microchips, i am not sure not how many companies the are now in action, but in my day the were at least 4 different companies, and all using 4 different scanners to pick thier own chips up, so unless a market / police stc had all 4 scanners, they could well miss a microchipped animals because the scanner didn;t register that chip because it belonged to a different company, and DONT forget chips are not visable to the naked eye and can migrate, depending on when they were put in.
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When was that??? I've had horses microchipped since 1994 and all chips since then have come up on all uk scanners. I think you are thinking about chips from abroad some US chips do not come up on uk/european scanners but all UK chips regardless of company show on all UK scanners. With regard to the chip being visible I really don't know what chips you are looking at? The chip is the size of a large grain of rice and is inserted into the muscle so is no way visible! Migration CAN happen in cats and dogs if the chip is not inserted correctly. The chip itself has a coating which binds to the tissues so therefore does not migrate. I've never known an equine chip to migrate. But yes I have known cat/dog ones especially if the cat/dog is stroked roughly around the scruff soon after being chipped and therefore not giving the chip time to bind to the tissues.
I'm not against freeze branding at all, but faced with a chip that doesn't cost annually and a freeze brand that does cost annually (yes I did see the post about northern brand or something and I will look into it thank you for that) when both forms offer the same level of id/security I have always chosen the chip. And DEFRA have also chosen chipping as the most acurate identification method due to the ruling that all horses registered after 1st july this year must be chipped.
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<font color="blue"> </font> i started freezemarking in 1989 and stopped after a year after having my son who is now 6 years old, the chips were fairly new on the market then and the different options of security of chips, branding irons and freezemarks were all in great demand then. but it was our business as operators to know what else was around so we could inform the puplic/clients what their options were, we were NOT allowed to favour one against the other as it would be seen as biased and unproffesional, we could only advise, which is all i am trying to do here
chips have come on alot over the last 10 years or so, but have you actually checked all the different chips by different scanners to see if the can be cross referanced? i am sure most now can be cross referenced but i still run into some which cant be!
chips are much better now with regards to migrating but it can still happen, my son's pony was chipped as a back up to being freezemarked (she is a VERY light palomino), and this was only done last year, i checked the position, funnerly enough only a couple of weeks ago and it has moved about 4" up her neck, its not the coating that binds the chip to the muscle, it has little tenticals that stick out slightly which is meant to stop the chip migrating, as with everything they dont always work, and in the last couple of years i have know quite a few cases of this happening.
Do you actually do microchipping yourself? i have been trained to do it as it was a service that i offered to animal owners and also micro chipping saddles rugs etc.
i am not against any of the methods that can be used for identifing your horse cat dog saddles etc, just know most of the pros and cons and what has worked best up to when i stopped freezemarking, but i wouldn't say i am an expert any more than any one else.
DEFRA may have chosen chipping, but unless you are armed with the scanners and can catch the poines etc, you cant not see a chip, were at least a policman or animal welfare person can see a freezemark (most of the time) from a distance!
Can i just ask, how many of you have ACTUALLY been stopped and ASKED for your horse passports? be it at a show, or a sale or even if you just transporting your horse around?
How many gypsey ponies have been marked?
how many of you have purchased a pony with papers including its passport?
how many of you have had your vet fill in the passport every time he/she treats your horse?
to me its just another money making scheme by DEFRA and the goverment and a way of keeping tabs on the horse population, just in case the is a mass outbreak of strangles or something and then they know the animals are kept.
haven't you noticed that since the outbreak of foot and mouth a few years ago, that was about the time they bought horse passports in, its purely so they can keep tabs on the number of amimals,
what other usefulness is the to passports?
i show and event (most at affilianted levels) and only EVER been asked ONCE for the vacination card, nevr for the actual passport, i always carry them as its the law, but having being stopped by the police to check if the lorry was over weight, the police didn't ask for the paperwork then, all they did was weigh the lorry, stick thier noses in the grooms door of the lorry and then back up and said "on your way".
as i said before you can have your horse marked by ANY of the companies that are around, BUT you DO NOT have to take out the yearly subcription, do you really think they will turn you away if you lose your horse? i know for a fact both leading companies have helped people in their search for lost stolen animals and have even helped with rewards, these were marked (not registered after the year) or unmarked horses,, if you think of it, would a company be stupid enough to turn down FREE publictity?
anyway, i will get off my bandwagon now, to somerise, i am sure things have moved on since i stopped marking horses, i am more than happy to accept that, but i am talking generally and trying NOT to be personal, nothing like a healthy debate is the
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with microchips, i am not sure not how many companies the are now in action, but in my day the were at least 4 different companies, and all using 4 different scanners to pick thier own chips up, so unless a market / police stc had all 4 scanners, they could well miss a microchipped animals because the scanner didn;t register that chip because it belonged to a different company, and DONT forget chips are not visable to the naked eye and can migrate, depending on when they were put in.
[/ QUOTE ]
????????
I'm not against freeze branding at all, but faced with a chip that doesn't cost annually and a freeze brand that does cost annually (yes I did see the post about northern brand or something and I will look into it thank you for that) when both forms offer the same level of id/security I have always chosen the chip. And DEFRA have also chosen chipping as the most acurate identification method due to the ruling that all horses registered after 1st july this year must be chipped.
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<font color="blue"> </font> i started freezemarking in 1989 and stopped after a year after having my son who is now 6 years old, the chips were fairly new on the market then and the different options of security of chips, branding irons and freezemarks were all in great demand then. but it was our business as operators to know what else was around so we could inform the puplic/clients what their options were, we were NOT allowed to favour one against the other as it would be seen as biased and unproffesional, we could only advise, which is all i am trying to do here
chips have come on alot over the last 10 years or so, but have you actually checked all the different chips by different scanners to see if the can be cross referanced? i am sure most now can be cross referenced but i still run into some which cant be!
chips are much better now with regards to migrating but it can still happen, my son's pony was chipped as a back up to being freezemarked (she is a VERY light palomino), and this was only done last year, i checked the position, funnerly enough only a couple of weeks ago and it has moved about 4" up her neck, its not the coating that binds the chip to the muscle, it has little tenticals that stick out slightly which is meant to stop the chip migrating, as with everything they dont always work, and in the last couple of years i have know quite a few cases of this happening.
Do you actually do microchipping yourself? i have been trained to do it as it was a service that i offered to animal owners and also micro chipping saddles rugs etc.
i am not against any of the methods that can be used for identifing your horse cat dog saddles etc, just know most of the pros and cons and what has worked best up to when i stopped freezemarking, but i wouldn't say i am an expert any more than any one else.
DEFRA may have chosen chipping, but unless you are armed with the scanners and can catch the poines etc, you cant not see a chip, were at least a policman or animal welfare person can see a freezemark (most of the time) from a distance!
Can i just ask, how many of you have ACTUALLY been stopped and ASKED for your horse passports? be it at a show, or a sale or even if you just transporting your horse around?
How many gypsey ponies have been marked?
how many of you have purchased a pony with papers including its passport?
how many of you have had your vet fill in the passport every time he/she treats your horse?
to me its just another money making scheme by DEFRA and the goverment and a way of keeping tabs on the horse population, just in case the is a mass outbreak of strangles or something and then they know the animals are kept.
haven't you noticed that since the outbreak of foot and mouth a few years ago, that was about the time they bought horse passports in, its purely so they can keep tabs on the number of amimals,
what other usefulness is the to passports?
i show and event (most at affilianted levels) and only EVER been asked ONCE for the vacination card, nevr for the actual passport, i always carry them as its the law, but having being stopped by the police to check if the lorry was over weight, the police didn't ask for the paperwork then, all they did was weigh the lorry, stick thier noses in the grooms door of the lorry and then back up and said "on your way".
as i said before you can have your horse marked by ANY of the companies that are around, BUT you DO NOT have to take out the yearly subcription, do you really think they will turn you away if you lose your horse? i know for a fact both leading companies have helped people in their search for lost stolen animals and have even helped with rewards, these were marked (not registered after the year) or unmarked horses,, if you think of it, would a company be stupid enough to turn down FREE publictity?
anyway, i will get off my bandwagon now, to somerise, i am sure things have moved on since i stopped marking horses, i am more than happy to accept that, but i am talking generally and trying NOT to be personal, nothing like a healthy debate is the
