Toowoomba Regional Council is urging residents to check what company their pet/s microchips are registered to, fearing certain microchip registrations may soon be voided.
Microchip company HomeSafe ID, which is used by many Toowoomba Region residents as well as the RSPCA Queensland, have recently gone into receivership and their database will soon be lost.
Portfolio and spokesperson for Environmental and Regulatory Services Cr Bill Cahill said the challenge was if owners don't update their microchip registry and their pet goes missing, it may make it difficult for council to reunite pets with their owners.
"Microchips which continue to be registered with HomeSafe ID will no longer provide any ownership information when scanned in the future. If members of the community drop off a lost dog or cat to our Animal Management Centre, then we will have to rely solely on the owner of the pet to come in and identify their lost animal. This will significantly delay the entire reuniting process", said Cr Cahill.
"This is a serious issue which will likely affect hundreds of Toowoomba Region residents".
However, Cr Cahill said there was still time for effected pet owners to responsibly change their registration to another service provider.
"There are several registries which residents can use to change over their microchip details, including Central Animal Records, Australasian Animal Registry, Petsafe and Global Micro Animal Registry".
If pet owners are unsure of which microchip provider they use, they can visit: https://petaddress.com.au/ to find out.
If owners are unsure of their pet/s microchip number, they can consult their regular veterinarian clinic. Alternatively, for dogs only, microchip numbers will be listed as part of the TRC pet registration details.
