Tuesday

[silverthorne]

Finally got myself financially straightened out enough to take Foot in to get chipped (Ula came 'equipped' with one already). So, after Tuesday, Foot, between tags, collar and now chip, will be as ID-entifiable as I can possibly make her short of tattoing her personal information on her rump. :)

I will feel SO much better once I get this done.

So, I have a question for everyone. If you had a pet, and you got them chipped, would you still make them wear a collar and tags or not? I'd like to know reasoning too, if you don't mind.

Also, (like I need to say that with you guys, heh), keep it polite with each other if there's a disagreement. *HUGS*

Comments

I would

[aquila-dominus.livejournal.com]

still have them in a collar and tags... and not just because I'm bent that way ;)

A collar and tags will say to the pound/vet/whomever that the cat belongs to someone. Even if the tags do not have anything more than a name it will make someone more likely to look for a chip. Random strays do not usually have chips and thus they may or may not get looked for. The collar say, I belong to someone, make the extra effort.

[cluegirl.livejournal.com]

I would. This is because many people who see a cat outside without a collar and tags will at once decide it is either abandoned, or a stray. The idea of having the animal checked for a chip will not even occur to them at all.

To be honest, with some people the collar and tags don't help either -- when I adopted Yasha he had a collar and vet tag on him in the cage, and the idiots at Animal Control never bothered to phone the vet's office and ask after his records until I, standing at their desk with the collar in my hand, insisted on it. And years later, when he had a collar with his name and my phone number on it, he got 'adopted' for a week by someone who didn't bother to call either. I didn't see him until he did his normal out-the-door-under-your-feet escape, and came home to me again.

So I absolutely would not give up the collar and tags, just as a sign to people who are too lazy to check properly that the cat is cared about, and will be missed.

[leaveoutalltherest]

I would say to keep the collar and tags. First off, the tag lets people know that the cats are current on rabies shots, so if it's a case where the cat is scared and bites, then that worry is taken care of.

Second, the neighbors/kids/whoever may get your cat back to you faster if your name/number/vet is on the tag and they can call that way, rather than calling the pound.

I don't know about your pound, but here all animals are checked for chips when they come in. It's just procedure anymore, mostly to check and see if the animal is a frequent/past visitor.

[showyourguns.livejournal.com]

Ditto, I would also - except (and I'm not sure if this is actually true, I've just heard it) that collars with bells on can make cats deaf? Either way it isn't like a collar MUST come with a bell on.

[goes-kaboom.livejournal.com]

Destro and Roadblock are chipped and have collars with tags on them still. Because most people that find cats don't think about chips, rather than just "oh, no collar... well, my kitty now."

The HomeAgain chip system comes with a little ID tag that you can put on a collar just in case, too, so that's what we've got in addition to their regular tags.