Points Of Presence

By Laura Guevin
Editorial Director, BiometriTech

For the most part, when people ask me what I do for a living I tell them I'm an editor for a technology magazine and leave it at that. I don't get into the specifics of the industries I've covered over the years -- Internet telephony, hosted communications services, and biometrics -- I've gotten too many blank stares and rolled eyes after attempting to explain these topics. But occasionally, I meet someone outside of my professional circle who's truly interested in the technologies I write about, and sometimes has a different perspective on a topic I may be researching.

That was the case last week when I took my cats to the veterinarian. I won't get into the specifics about how my 20-pound black beauty threw a hissy fit and had to be taken into a back room and muzzled so the vet could draw blood, or about the gracious presents he left for the technician on the examining room floor. Dr. Munson is obviously used to this kind of behavior, and he was more interested in telling me about a new auto-immune disease vaccination under development for dogs, which I might be interested in for my own dog. This was certainly news to me. What was even bigger news though, was the microchip he showed me that would be implanted in my puppy should I choose to vaccinate him. Apparently, dogs test positive for auto-immune diseases for some time after receiving the vaccination. If my dog should wander off and come into the custody of the dog warden, he would be tested for these diseases and would immediately be put to sleep if one was found. Unless he had the chip, which would not only list me as his owner, but let the dog warden know that he had in fact been vaccinated against the disease.

Of course, I've heard about implantable chips being used to track pets for some time. In fact, Yahoo has a Pet Microchip category in its Shopping and Services listings, with six Web sites where I can purchase an implant for my dog if I choose. In addition to the sites listed, I was already familiar with Applied Digital Solutions, maker of the VeriChip RFID chip for humans. And I knew that several humans throughout the world have been voluntarily implanted with the chips. As I perused the pet microchip sites, I begin to realize that I have more in common with my dog than I previously thought -- we could both be tagged with implanted hardware if I chose.

As of now in the U.S., the only way your pet can be involuntarily subjected to a microchip implant is if you live on a military base. That's because the U.S. Department of Defense has determined that military bases can independently decide whether residents' pets must be chipped -- and 35 bases have taken them up on the offer and made it mandatory. Apparently, there has been a large stray animal population on the bases, with enlisted personnel abandoning animals when they are transferred or shipped overseas. The chipping has been effective in curbing abandoned pet problems and identifying pets involved in fights or attacks, according to the bases that have made it mandatory.

Many European countries have made microchipping mandatory for all pets, and dogs in Hong Kong must be microchipped. Town and city boards throughout the U.S. have also passed resolutions endorsing mandatory microchipping, but it has not been made into law anywhere as of yet that I'm aware of. The California Senate considered a bill making it mandatory last year, but the bill died in the Legislature.

STEPPING STONE TO PRIVACY VIOLATIONS?
Let me preface this section by saying that I'm a huge animal lover. As stated above, I have two cats and a dog and have had various other pets throughout my lifetime. I've never lost a pet, although I came close when my cat knocked a screen out of my second-story apartment window and plunged into the shrubs below one night. Luckily, I found him in the woods behind the building the next morning. I realize many pet owners aren't so lucky.

My animals are all collared and tagged, and none of them stray very far from my house. I also live on a dead-end street and my neighbors all know my pets, so I'm not overly concerned about losing them. But I've been through two cross-country moves, and I could have easily lost them in the vicinity of, say, Grand Isle, NE -- 1,500 miles from home. If I had known about microchipping years ago when I made those moves, would I have tagged my pets? I don't think so.

First of all, the concept creeps me out. I realize there's no pain or discomfort to the animal, the microchip is miniscule, and anesthesia isn't even required for the procedure. The idea of having a permanent piece of hardware embedded in my animal (or me for that matter) bugs me. Also, my vet mentioned the hardware could "drift" from the original site of implantation, although this shouldn't cause discomfort or issues for the animal. Some people argue that mandatory microchipping, even of pets, is a civil rights violation as it could lead to tracking of their owners. I don't believe there's a danger of tracking happening now, since the read distance for most scanners is 14 inches. However, some day it may be possible to read the chips from a much larger distance, and to write new information to them as well. And that opens the door to a huge number of possible privacy violations.

I do believe microchipping can have advantages for some pet owners, and certainly for tracking livestock as well. I just don't think it should be mandatory. As for human tagging, while the VeriChip was approved for human use in February by the FDA, the Administration turned around and launched a formal investigation of manufacturer Applied Digital in May. The chip was apparently approved by the FDA with the understanding that no medical information of any kind would be encoded on the chip, and the chip would not used to link to any kind of medical database. Apparently the chip was being marketed for use in medical alerting, which prompted the FDA to examine whether it should be regulated as a medical device. It's still under investigation as far as I know.

It's safe to say that I won't be microchipping any of my pets anytime soon. If I choose to get this new vaccination for my dog, I will inquire about a physical tag for him, like the rabies tag he currently wears. Some will say that makes me an irresponsible pet owner, but I have strong feelings about implanting hardware in a living creature, particularly one I care about.

Laura Guevin is the editorial director of BiometriTech, an online magazine and newsletter covering biometric technologies and products. She welcomes your comments at lguevin@tmcnet.com.