Pet Microchip Helps to Locate Pet Pooch Lost for Over One Year and 1,260 Miles Away From Home

On Tuesday June 30, the King County Animal Services Shelter (Seattle Washington) left a phone message at the Seymour home in San Diego that Dharma their lost dog was found. About sixteen months ago Dharma went missing from the family yard. The beloved pooch was found roaming the streets of Federal Way last week near Seattle Washington. With a scan for a microchip, an AVID FriendChip was found through Avid's Recovery Network, PETtrac. The Seymour Family was revealed as the owner. "This obviously shows the value of pet microchip identification," said Al Dams, an administrator for King County Animal Services, "We hope this nice story will be a reminder to all pet owners to have your pet licensed and microchipped. This reunion occurred because the microchip provider had the correct and updated information in the system. We believe in the use of microchips for pets because, as with Dharma, it may provide the needed phone call to get them home."

San Diego, CA July 6, 2004 -- On Tuesday June 30, the King County Animal Services Shelter (Seattle Washington) left a phone message at the Seymour home in San Diego that Dharma their lost dog was found. About sixteen months ago Dharma went missing from the family yard. The beloved pooch was found roaming the streets of Federal Way last week near Seattle Washington. With a scan for a microchip, an AVID FriendChip was found through Avids Recovery Network, PETtrac. The Seymour Family was revealed as the owner. "This obviously shows the value of pet microchip identification," said Al Dams, an administrator for King County Animal Services, "We hope this nice story will be a reminder to all pet owners to have your pet licensed and microchipped. This reunion occurred because the microchip provider had the correct and updated information in the system. We believe in the use of microchips for pets because, as with Dharma, it may provide the needed phone call to get them home."

Losing Dharma was almost unbearable to the Seymour family. Three years ago the Seymour family adopted the Lab-Samoyed mix puppy. "When she became missing we searched all of the local shelters, we created posters, we looked everywhere and we were broken hearted not to have her at home. Everyone understood the pain that our children Laura and Joseph were going through, but Dennis and I were also terribly hurt by the loss. We all viewed Dharma is a member of our family. When we adopted Darma everyone in the family fell in love and she became our third child." Daughter Laura chose the name, but son Joseph became the big brother and protector of this new family member. Dharma and Joseph were together most of the time and Dharma even slept each evening on Josephs bed.

The family has been overjoyed with the return of Dharma, but overwhelmed is the word used to describe the support of all of the people who have been involved in the process of the family being reunited. According to Peggy Russell-Seymour AVID ID Systems invented the pet microchip technology and developed the FriendChip microchip that Dharma has implanted and the recovery system PETtrac that brought her home. The FriendChip and PETtrac systems saved Dharma.

The Seymour family learned first-hand the value of United States Standard pet microchipping through their local community; The San Diego County Department of Animal Services and the California and San Diego Veterinary Medical Association have one of the most successful and aggressive microchipping programs in the nation. Microchipping pets is one of the most important steps pet owners can take to help us stop the unnecessary euthanasia of animals, according to Pauline White, Executive Director of San Diego Veterinary Medical Association. While this story is encouraging, a similar story had a very negative outcome last month as Banfield Pet Hospital has been microchipping pets with a non standard (ISO) chip. A puppy in Virginia was euthanized because there was not a well established recovery system in place. Banfield Pet Hospital has stopped marketing the ISO pet microchip.

About AVID ID Systems, The Microchip Company:
Based in Norco California, AVID ID Systems is the inventor of pet microchip technology. To date Avid has microchipped over 9 million pets in the United States using the United States Standard 125 MHz frequency. Avid PETtrac System fields an average of over 8 thousand calls a week, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and reunites thousands of lost pets with their families throughout the United States.

Contact: Anita Woodley - For Avid Identification Systems, Inc.
Salmon Creek Public Relations Inc.
Vancouver, WA 98686
360-571-5560

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