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ID chips increasingly a pet issue

By Kevin Voigt
For CNN

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This is the story of a dog, a divorced father, his daughter and a computer chip.

Strangely enough, the hero of our tale is the computer chip: were it not implanted shortly after the puppy's birth in 2001, the dog -- an affectionate golden retriever that answers to the name of "Sandy" -- would now be dead.

Instead, after a six-year absence, Sandy has been reunited with her family thanks to technology aimed at keeping the pet population in check in the bustling high-rise city of Hong Kong.

"I admit I didn't know much about dogs when I bought her," recalls Rajesh Sahwani, who purchased the pet in 2001 for about US$1,000. He was going through a divorce and bought the dog as a present for his then 9-year-old daughter, Shanti, whom he has custody. "I asked around to friends and people said golden retrievers were good with children ... but I didn't know how large they got."

Sandy was a good pet for his daughter, but as the 6-month old puppy grew she became more cumbersome in Sahwani's small apartment -- and developed an affection for eating curtains. After five months, he returned Sandy to the pet store asking they find her a roomier home.

"They told me they found a Canadian family with a garden who would soon return (to North America)," he says. Although his daughter didn't want to give up the dog, "it seemed like the best thing for (Sandy)."

Sahwani put the episode behind him until two months ago, when he got a call from Hong Kong animal control officers. They found Sandy, flea-bitten and fur mottled, roaming free near the border with mainland China. An electronic chip implanted behind the neck of the dog -- a tracking device required by law for all Hong Kong pets -- identified Sahwani as the owner.

"The first thing I said when they called was, 'what dog?'" recalls Sahwani. Officials told him if Sandy wasn't claimed in two days, she would be destroyed.

The six years since Sahwani gave up the dog weren't kind to Sandy. The owners of the pet store -- which has since closed -- apparently sold Sandy to an illegal "puppy mill" for breeding dogs instead of giving her to a family as promised. The breeding operation, formerly located in the vicinity where Sandy was found, was shut down by Hong Kong officials earlier this year.

An examination by a veterinarian showed Sandy had given birth to several litters of puppies and -- based on scars on her skin and nose -- was likely confined in a cage.

But when Sahwani walked into the holding pen and called Sandy's name, "she immediately came to me," he says. "There was no way I could give her up again."

Company's sales doubling

Stories of reunions such as Sandy and the Sahwani's are becoming more common as RFID (radio frequency identification) microchip tagging of pets becomes more commonplace.

"There are tens of thousands of pets that are reunited each year with owners in the United States alone," says Kevin McGrath, president and CEO of Digital Angel, a U.S.-based maker of microchips for pets, poultry and livestock. "Except old age, the No. 1 reason why young animals are killed is because they become lost and are euthanized."

The industry has been growing in recent years, but exploded in the United States in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, when hundreds of animals were left by residents fleeing the city.

"That really put the spotlight on finding lost animals," says McGrath, whose company had sales of 1.7 million tags last year, but anticipate sales this year to reach 4 million.

For Sahwani and Sandy, who has recovered from her injuries, the reunion helped heal wounds in his family. "For years my daughter held it against me that we gave up Sandy," he says. "Now that's gone away."

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