The County of Hawaii Animal Control and Protection Agency is hosting its second free microchipping and licensing event in Volcano on Saturday.
According to Animal Control Administrator Matthew Runnells, about 90% of pets that Animal Control picks up are not microchipped, making it extremely difficult to find owners most of the time.
“One of the key components to getting faster returns to those owners is education about registration, with microchipping, and with registering those microchips,” Runnells said. “When a pet is not microchipped, or a microchip is not registered, we have no frame of reference to begin returning them.”
The agency takes in more than 250 animals a month on average, and its two facilities combined have 137 spaces for dogs and 42 for cats.
The average length of stay for an animal is roughly 45 days, and for 40% of those animals, that stay ends with euthanization.
According to Runnells, pets with registered microchips historically go home with their owners and only spend about 48 hours on average at the facility.
As of January 2022, the law requires pet owners to have microchip identification implanted in their dogs and cats. Animal organizations also must implant a microchip in all stray dogs and cats in their custody that do not have one.
The law also requires owners to register the microchip number with their name and up-to-date contact information with a microchip registration company. Hawaii County uses the national registry at my24pet.com.
To alleviate the cost of getting a microchip for a pet, Animal Control is utilizing a grant to host free microchipping and licensing events for the community in central locations of each Hawaii Island district.
The next event is set for 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. this Saturday at the Cooper Center in Volcano. Owners are asked to secure their animals before bringing them.