What if Your Pet Got Involved:
A Scenario like this one is happening all day, every day, somewhere.

Scenario: In a small town in Iowa on Fri. March 14, 2008 at 7:30 PM, an officer comes in contact with an animal that has allegedly just bitten a person. It is a single bite, and has just broken the skin. Actions an officer has to make.
o Get the first aid kit.
o Check animal for identification tag.
o Get rabies vaccination record.
o Get bite victim to a treatment center.

In this case, the animal has an RFID chip implant; the officer does not know this yet. The animal has 3 tags: a rabies tag, a name and address tag and a www.petid.com tag. A bystander said they thought that the animal had a chip implant.

What is the best way for the officer to be certain the animal has been vaccinated for rabies?

1. Find a chip reader:
o The town vet has the only chip reader in town, and he went fishing for the weekend. Plus, it only reads one brand of RFID chip.

2. Check the rabies tag:
o The rabies tag is from out of town, and it is after hours.

3. The name and address tag is their current location.

4. Check the www.petid.com tag:
o The officer radios the dispatcher, and gives him the web address and the tag number.

The dispatcher comes back with pet owner contact info, animal description, pet photo, veterinarian info, and verified vaccination record.

If in this typical case, the rabies vaccination could not have been verified in time, the animal would have been destroyed to determine if it had rabies. The bite victim may have needed to start rabies treatments while waiting for the rabies test results.

If a pet is either lost or has bitten a person, TIME IS EVERYTHING!