Pets of Springdale to Get Chips (But No Salsa!)

Hey Everyone!

Last night the City of Springdale passed an ordinance requiring animals that live within the city limits to be micro-chipped.  The ordinance will go into effect in 30 days.  According to an article by Steve Caraway on NWAonline.com "The ordinance includes increasing fees for each time a pet owner is convicted for their animal running loose, with an extra charge for animals that have not been spayed or neutered."

The idea is that micro-chips aren't easily lost or removed like collars and tags, meaning that lost animals can be returned to their owners.  It will also prevent the intentional dumping of animals because it would be easy to track those animals back to their owners.  In addition, micro-chipping will reduce costs to the city because workers will no longer have to track tags and the paperwork that goes with them.  And perhaps most importantly, it should reduce the number of animals that the city will have to euthanize each year.

I called the Springdale Animal Shelter and spoke with Karen Valle, who was working there this afternoon.  She said they are in the process of arranging some micro-chipping clinics that would work much like the rabies clinics in the area.  They don't have specific dates for those clinics yet.  As soon as we hear anything, we'll be sure to let you know.  We'll also include any information we have in our newsletter, so if you're not signed up and would like to be, click here.

Karen also told me that the micro-chipping will replace city tags which were previously purchased annually at either animal services or the city clerk's office.  In fact, she said they have not sold any city tags this year in anticipation of this ordinance being passed.

As an aside, if you're interested in micro-chipping your animals, whether you live in Springdale or not, Northwest Arkansas Animal Rescue holds monthly spay and neuter clinics where they also do low cost micro-chipping.  For more information on their upcoming clinics you can check e-mail them at spaynwa(at)yahoo(dot)com or call them at (479) 439-7978.

Elaine Tayrien of NWAAR helps a pet owner at last year's

low cost vaccination/micro-chipping clinic at Bigwag