New England Pets at Risk After Microchip Company Shuts Down

If you’ve got a pet with a microchip, you might need to re-register it—especially if you’re in New England, where losing your dog in a blizzard would be a nightmare for both of you.

According to USA Today, one of the major pet microchip companies, Save This Life, recently shut down, and that means your pet’s chip might not be working the way you think it is.

When you visit the Save This Life website, it appears to still be "live," but that's not the case per the news outlet.

Microchips are supposed to be a permanent ID, but they only work if they’re linked to an active database.

With Save This Life out of the picture, pet owners who registered their animals with them need to check if their information is still accessible.

If not, you may need to re-register your pet’s chip with another company—because otherwise, that little implant is just an expensive piece of rice under their skin.

So what should you do?

First, check your pet’s microchip number and look it up through the AAHA Universal Pet Microchip Lookup Tool. It’ll tell you if the chip is still linked to a working registry. If not, you can register it with companies like AKC Reunite or PetLink.

New Englanders love their pets, and even though they are required to be leashed in most outdoor areas, let’s be real—between wandering off on hikes and getting distracted by a rogue squirrel, our animals need all the help they can get. Make sure your furry escape artist is properly registered before you find yourself stapling "Lost Dog" posters to every telephone pole in town.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported that HomeAgain shut down. Save This Life is the microchip company that shut down.