Dr. Harris L. Stoddard III says his Norco, California-based company felt compelled to sue. "To protect our pets," he said, "we were left with no alternative other than to file a patent infringement suit against a Canadian pet insurance company, Pethealth, and Allflex, who manufactures their incompatible microchip products."
According to Stoddard's company, Avid Identification Systems, Inc., Texas-based Allflex makes chip scanners and imports the chips from overseas.
Martha Armstrong, Humane Society of the US senior vice president for Companion Animals and Equine Protection, seems to be in support of Stoddard. "All pets should have some form of identification on them," she said, adding that chips beat collars and ID tags. "But we are concerned that pet owners could have a false sense of security."
Avid says 125 kHz microchips – the type that it makes – are considered the standard of care in the US and have been placed in over eight million pets across the US, resulting in 8,000 lost pets being returned to their families each week. Using the foreign chips, with their foreign frequency, "can be viewed as a deviation of the accepted standard of care," according to the company.
"The US has the best system in the world," says Stoddard. But the incompatibility between scanners and microchips means some chipped animals entering shelters may be treated as unidentified and destroyed or not returned to their family. "Putting lives of our pets at risk is totally unacceptable," he said. "Especially when compatible chips could have been offered."
"What were they thinking?" agreed Lauren Smith of Sorrento Animal Hospital. She says the US system worked just fine. As for the foreign one, "It's not an intelligent decision, and it's alienating to veterinarians."