Check Microchip

Goose76

With so many people looking to get puppies at this time I thought I’d share the below website which is a microchip database for Europe:

Europetnet.org

Not sure if it is completely foolproof (or crucially, how often it is updated) but it should hopefully steer people away from puppy farms and the unscrupulous.

Cherry Blossom

Maybe I'm a bit slow this evening but how does you posing a link to a microchip database steer people away from puppy farms?

Goose76

I probably didn’t explain that too well - apologies.

I’ve noticed some puppies advertised for sale online have microchip numbers beside them that are not found on the above database. As I said, as this does NOT necessarily mean the microchip is fake, but it may well be querying this further with the breeder / seller, especially if you have other concerns based on the ad you have seen.

Cherry Blossom

The fact that they are advertising pups for sale with the restrictions that are still in place would lead to concern on its own. I'd say its safe to say all pups advertised for sale at the minute are from puppy farms and backyard breeders. If you were looking at advert sites they generally all were before lockdown came in at all so I don't see what's changed.

Goose76

Ok...I was just trying to help people generally who may be looking for dogs and puppies in the near future.:o

Cherry Blossom

I would say a microchip number appearing or not appearing on that site is no indication of anything other than the fact that its a current valid number. It takes time to register a microchip so it may not appear immediately. Just because its there doesn't mean it is a genuine microchip for that pup. I'm sure plenty of sellers are hammering away at made up numbers because the pups aren't chipped yet or maybe they have no intention of chipping them. Some of these makey up numbers may well be valid microchips. I think it is now a requirement that chip numbers are displayed on ads causing people to make them up.

DBB

Goose76 wrote: »

Ok...I was just trying to help people generally who may be looking for dogs and puppies in the near future.:o

It's a legal requirement now for all ads for dogs, whether free, rescue, or being sold, must display the dog's microchip number, and no doubt you're right op... there's a lot of messing going on.
My guess is that there is a good chunk of people putting in any ould number, just so that the ad will publish, whether the pup is chipped or not. But, I'd also suspect that if someone is advertising a litter, they're not going to input each pup's chip number... they put in any number but the pups are actually legitimately chipped.
And you're right OP... I know one fella who was buying a pup (shortly before the pandemic hit), who keeps livestock and is well used to checking up ear tag numbers etc, who never spotted that the microchip number on the ad for a litter he went to view was bs... it was 123456789123456! When I pointed it out to him, he was horrified he'd let this past him!

tiredblondie

I have my dog registered on Fido since i got her 11 years ago.
I stumbled across this website a few weeks back and out of interest, put in her chip number and it said it was registered to the original place we got her.
Now.....i have on a few occasions, asked the vet to check her chip for me to be sure all is still ok on it and they confirm the details are mine and all is good.
A few years back when it became law to have a certification of registration (or something like that!), i applied and paid through Fido and the cert was sent to my house with my details.

So why then, does it have her original place showing on Europetnet i wonder!!

tk123

tiredblondie wrote: »

So why then, does it have her original place showing on Europetnet i wonder!!

It seems to be the whoever created/updated the record. For the one I checked it's IKC and Fido .. So if you got the dog from a rescue and that's what's showing up I'd assume they're able to register/update pets on the database themselves.

tiredblondie

tk123 wrote: »

It seems to be the whoever created/updated the record. For the one I checked it's IKC and Fido .. So if you got the dog from a rescue and that's what's showing up I'd assume they're able to register/update pets on the database themselves.

I'm not too concerned by it to be honest, i just found it odd!
I can't seem to log onto fido either to check there
So i'm just going on what the vets told me, that they can see my details against her chip!