Also I wrote a piece for the Guardian in the UK:
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1710249,00.html
Basically: Pretty much the rest of the world uses the ISO (international standard) chip that is the industry standard -- expecept in the US where they continue to use very old technology because *it allows companies like Avid to control not just a major part of the chips market, but sales of very expensive chip readers*. You HAVE to have an Avid or Avid-licensedreader to read an Avid chip as they even encrypt the damn chip -- meaning no one can return an animal except by ringing Avid to find out what info corresponds to the chip.
The US govt has tried to bring in legislation to forbid this (backed by the Humane Society); I don't know where it currently stands.
Ironically Avid sells readers in Canada and in Europe that will read ANY chip, the ISO standard chip or the USA chip. It is only in the US where they will not allow any other company to make a reader that can read their chips except thru licensing deals, and only in the US where they encrypt their chips as well. Elsewhere their unencrypted chips can also be read by any reader (eg in the UK and Ireland for example).
Why this ridiculous, pet-unfriendly, rescue-unfriendly, EXPENSIVE to the vet industry, the rescue network, and the consumer system has become the standard is beyond me.
If it were the software industry Avid would not be allowed to do this as it would be a forceful creation of a monopoly market and anti-competitive and anti-consumer. Because it is a corner of the market where people dont really understand how they are being manipulated and how it lowers the chance of their pet's chip being read if found...they seem to get away with it.
:swear: :swear:
Don't get me wrong, chipping is really important -- along with tag and collars at all times -- but the way the system works now is silly and could much better benefit the animals that are chipped, owners and so forth.
