Hope they don't get cancer. Chips are pretty evil.
Nonie
A few references I located this evening:
Microchips have been used extensively in pets over the last decade. They are especially prevalent in the United Kingdom, where over four million cats and dogs have received the implants. The British Small Animal Veterinary Association has been tracking adverse reactions to microchips since 1996. They identified a link between microchips and cancer in two dogs.Two dogs out of four million is a very low number indeed. Based on the available information, it appears that microchips cause cancer in dogs and cats at a negligible rate.
Microchips, because they are injected, can cause postinjection fibrosarcoma. This is a form of cancer which can appear at the injection site of a dog, cat, or ferret after ANY injection, even a simple blood draw. Postinjection sarcoma is vanishingly rare, and that the benefits of whatever's being injected far outweigh the risks. (You can tell how rare it is, because when was the last time you heard of a case of it? I'm guessing never. And how many pets do your friends and family and coworkers have, and how many injections have those pets been given? I'm guessing thousands.)
"Microchips cause cancer" is a bit misleading and overstated, but it's not UNtrue. But it's rare enough, and the potential benefits of microchips are so phenomenal, that I think it's definitely worth the risk. Microchips absolutely save pets' lives every day - the first thing any shelter or vet does when they receive a stray animal is scan it. Microchipped animals get an extended lease on life at the shelter, even when the owners can't be contacted.
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