WASHINGTON COUNTY, Utah — Two cities in southern Utah have come up with a unique way to reunite lost pets with their owners.
Ivins and Santa Clara, which jointly run two animal control shelters, have added an outdoor RFID scanner to detect microchips in lost pets.
MacKenzie Peterson runs the joint animal shelters for Ivins and Santa Clara. She owns two dogs herself so she knows what it’s like if one goes missing.
“It's pretty traumatizing,” Peterson said. “You don't know what happens to your animal.”
One time, MacKenzie’s cat went missing.
“Somebody took her in and she was microchipped under my name and they were trying to take her personally and she came back to me,” Peterson said.
That microchip was the key. They’re the size of a kernel of rice and placed under the shoulder blade of an animal. They contain the name of the pet as well as the address and phone number of their owner.
An Ivins resident came to the Ivins City Council with an idea they heard about from another state. A public microchip scanner available 24/7 that people can bring lost pets to.
“They thought that it would be the best thing for us to do since we have been so full,” Peterson said.
The reason the shelter is usually full is because Ivins and Santa Clara don’t kill animals that come to them. They were some of the first no-kill shelters in the state.
So in the last week, an RFID scanner was placed in front of the main Ivins police station.
The way it goes, a person can bring a lost pet to the scanner, activate it, rub it over their pet, and if all goes well, there is beeping to indicate who that cat is and the owner that's looking for them.
Now, Peterson hopes the idea spreads.
“I'm hoping to promote it to other places so that it can eliminate the dogs that have to come here.”
