28 Comments:

• I just learned of the controversy surrounding pet microchiping, thanks to a letter I just now received from Banfield. While at my vet today I asked an assistant what the deal was, to which she responded by placing the blame on Avid for attempting to monopolize the market...After reading a little more on this issue my response to Banfield as a loyal customer and pet lover: FINE SO MAYBE SOMEONE NEEDS TO DEAL WITH AVID FOR ATTEMPTING TO CORNER THE MARKET. WHY, THOUGH, DID YOU INSERT A USELESS DEVICE INTO MY DOG AND LEAD ME TO BELIEVE THE PAST TWO YEARS THAT IT WORKS?!?!
  Banfield knew the reason why I had the microchip placed in my dog. How could they practice like this in good conscience...atleast be upfront with pet owners!!!

  By  Anonymous, at 9:44 PM, January 10, 2005  

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• After having my dog microchipped at an agility show for a reasonble price and being assured the chip could be read by all readers I find her chip is unreadable at my vet. It seems her crystal tag is the same one used by Banfield and my vet has an Avid reader that is a universal chip reader. Shame, shame, shame Crystal tag and Banfield. What is so hard about getting together and agreeing on a number so that all dogs could be located if they get lost and reuninited with their families. Chances are now I will have to have her remicrochipped so I know she will be safe.

  By  Anonymous, at 7:23 AM, June 28, 2005  

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• Gyah! BANFIELD IS NOT AT FAULT HERE. I'll say it again -- BANFIELD IS NOT AT FAULT. Believe me, I'm no fanboy of theirs, but the one to blame is definitely Avid. They *do* engage in predatory practices, or at least are intentionally harming pets to make a buck. Read around -- Avid makes readers that actually *are* universal, but only sell them in other countries, where they had the good sense to settle on one standard. They *intentionally cripple* the readers they sell here in the States so that competitors like Crystal won't benefit from their reader distribution. They don't care if your dog gets euthanized because their readers refused to identify his chip. It makes me sick.
  
  
  Money is *not* the issue for Banfield -- they already mark up everything they sell you by like 200%; if they chose a more expensive chip it would just make them more money, since they could charge more for the "service". They are right to choose the international standard -- ISO is not some mysterious French organization; most of its input comes from American or Japanese groups, as I understand it. ISO created the standard for tons of consumer electronics. Compact Discs are probably the most well-known. Using an ISO standard means that the technology doesn't carry the weight of stupid licenses. The chips are more affordable, and do *exactly the same job* as the more expensive license-fee carrying competitors. The readers are less expensive too -- would you really rather that shelters, that already operate on a tight budget, put more money towards buying the license-burdened scanners than, say, keeping animals alive? Would you rather have to buy two CD players because two manufacturers wanted to "differentiate" their products in the market? Think!!!
  
  What I'm trying to say is, this isn't like some French institution telling us to use metric screws. It's more like the contest between Betamax and VHS, except one (Beta, I hope) carries a fee to make Avid extra money. If any of you are frequent users of consumer electronics, you might liken it to the difference between Compact Flash memory and Sony Memory Sticks. Sony has a patent on their Memory Sticks, while the flash card is based on an open standard. Result? 1 gigabyte Flash card is 60 dollars, while the exact same capacity of Memory Stick is 95. Who does this benefit? Certainly not you, the consumer. The problem is, in this case, it's a life-or-death issue.
  
  I'm sorry that you guys got, essentially, screwed by Avid. But the ISO standard costs *nothing* to implement. Every single reader manufacturer, if they actually gave half a shit about your pet, could add support for the ISO standard (that's the 134.2 frequency) for next-to-no cost to every reader they make, and save pet's lives. They have not -- what does that say about them?

  By  Anonymous, at 7:52 AM, June 28, 2005  

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• I almost forgot: there's one other reason why using the ISO standard matters. It's the reason I found out about this whole thing to begin with. I want to take my dogs overseas. If you go anywhere in the EU, you must have a microchipped pet. Guess which one they are equipped to read? That's right, ISO. If you have the "wrong" (Avid) chip, you have to *buy your own scanner* to bring with, and that ain't cheap. The cost of bringing your pet overseas just went up 250-300 bucks. Still think "American innovation" (aside: it wasn't) is worth the trouble?

  By  Anonymous, at 8:00 AM, June 28, 2005  

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• Hey Anonymous,
  Let's get real! Most people are not traveling out of the U.S. and taking their dogs on a trip to Europe.People should get their dog microchipped with one that is most likely to be read by vets and animal shelters. I have a friend that works at a shelter that has been asking for years for a reader for the Banfield chips which they say they will provide for free and has yet to receive one. Their tags may be a little cheaper but it's the safety of one of your family members in jeopardy. Do you really want to take a chance with that? Let the companies feud as they may but my dog got rechipped and now has a chip that most vet's and animal shelters can read. Home Again is on the same frequency as Avid so who's not on the right frequency? I'm not choosing sides in this matter, I just want my dog to be safe and have a good chance of being returned to me if she were to ever get loose.

  By  Anonymous, at 6:52 AM, July 13, 2005  

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• In Thailand they are used the chip from Avid that was 20 yrs. agoes now they know they start to used the ISO chip it was easy to buy the company the one have and make ISO chip is in Thailand

  By  amorn Thailand, at 11:11 AM, July 15, 2005  

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• In regards to previous postings:
  
  - there are millions of vacationers that annually take their cat or dog with them on family vacations to Europe or transit Europe with their pets to other parts of the world. The USDA can provide the statistics for this.
  
  - for pet owner who travels to Europe, is there a reason that they cannot insert both micro chips in their pet ? One to be read by the AVID readers and one to be read by the ISO readers.
  
  - there are UK companies that make a reader that will read both the ISO standard FDXB and the FDXA (those used in the USA) chips. The readers cost $210 and are available from: www.pet-id.net/shop/pet_reader.htm

  By  Anonymous, at 6:18 AM, August 01, 2005  

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• In regards to the above comment, there are indeed readers that read both chips. Avid makes these readers, as well as the makers of other chips.
  
  But don't be fooled by this Crystal Imports, and makers of other chips. They'd like you to think that Avid is the problem.
  
  The truth is that Avid makes ISO chips for European markets as well. Crystal Imports could as easily make the 125kz chips if it wanted to.
  
  But Crystal Imports and other ISO chip makers want you to believe that the 125kz "standard" in the USA is due to some kind of shenanigans, when the truth is that the ISO chip makers are just "cry babies" for not being able to compete in our market.

  By  Steve, at 9:19 AM, August 01, 2005  

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• After doing some research, it's pretty clear that AVID is engaging in some pretty nasty tactics to maintain their monopoly. Anybody who TRIES to compete in this market gets sued by AVID. AVID has *encrypted* the number in their chips, so that ONLY their readers can read it (NOBODY else encrypts their numbers -- there is no REASON to encrypt the ID, except to prevent anybody from being allowed to manufacture a universal scanner. If they try to manufacture a universal scanner, they can face criminal charges under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA).
  
  AVID are the bullies here. They don't WANT there to be a standard for readers and chips, unless it's THEIR "standard" and they control ALL the sales. I cannot blame Banfield for trying to compete. I do blame AVID for suing them to prevent them from competing. This is "free" market?

  By  Anonymous, at 12:12 PM, October 13, 2005  

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• Instead of making this some pro-america or pro/anti-avid rant, lets consider this...
  
  Why didn't Avid step up and say, "hey, we'll support your 134khz chips on our scanners. It'll even things out."
  
  Avid wouldn't have to pay anything, it's ISO standard. Funny how comments can be turned back around on you.
  
  Now as a result of this, if I want to go work overseas, I have to consider leaving my dog in a kennel in an airport for 6 months (or longer)because I cant get him properly equipped for the move.
  
  That sounds fair to me doesn't it? For all your rah-rah crap about how Avid's the victim here because banfield implemented a global standard, please rethink this. If you went someplace and they told you that despite your dog being chipped, he's got the wrong one for that country, state, etc, and must remain behind or sleep in a box without your love and attention for an undetermined amount of time. I think the adoption of two standards is entirely possible, and would resolve this absolutely stupid issue. Anyone claiming that Avid or anyone else needing a unified freq. is retarded.
  
  Do you think TV should only have 1 station? Or we all need to drive the same car? How about how we all work in the same office.
  
  None of these work because we all have DIFFERENT needs for our lives, just like we do for our pets.

  By  Anonymous, at 11:43 PM, November 04, 2005  

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• To the above commenter, if you believe AVID used unfair tactics to corner the market, then so be it. I content that other microchip makers had every opportunity to corner the market as well, but simply failed to compete.
  
  Regardless, the 125khz is the defacto standard in the USA. Banfield knew this prior to selling its ISO chips. Hence, it's Banfield's fault for trying to implement a chip that doesn't work.

  By  Steve, at 12:28 AM, November 05, 2005  

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• The real problem of Avid’s Microchips is not really that they are not universally accepted, the mean problem “here in Mexico“ is that they are selling two different kinds of chips, one which is ROM (Read Only Memory) and another one whose contents can be altered - Let’s call it the ReWritable one. So, What is the problem? Well, that the ReWritable ones can be misused , as in fact it is happening here in Mexico, in a series of frauds committed by employees of the Mexican Kennel Club “The Federación Canófila Mexicana” 2 dogs with the same ID#? Doesn’t surprise me, A dog from one breeder with the Rewritten info of another breeder? doesn’t surprise me as well. I think AVID should only sell their "Secure Chips - ROM” to this state of the art corrupted institution here in Mexico - the FCM. Is there anyone from AVID paying attention?

  By  Anonymous, at 11:39 AM, November 14, 2005  

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• My veterinarian has a HomeAgain reader which cannot read the AVID chip - so much for a solid system to reunite me and my pet should it get lost. He also cannot read the ISO chip but that is expected to change since the US Congress just endorsed ISO technology and the winds of change are in the air. Ironically AVID does manufacture readers that read ISO as well as non-ISO chips and the US is the only country they market encryted chips - so who is wearing the black hat. Yes, competition brings innovation to market for the consumer to decide by price and service. Compare other commodities such as autos, toasters, etc. where there is a level playing field. The simple solution is a reader that can read ALL microchips ISO, non-ISO and encrypted. The only reason that has not happened is AVID.

  By  Anonymous, at 6:41 AM, February 21, 2006  

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• ISO or not to ISO - well ASPCA, American Veterinary Medical Association, American Animal Hospital Association and the U.S. Congress have ALL agreed that ISO technology should be the standard for companion animal identification. After they evaluated standarization, they decided on ISO was the best going forward. How does the AVID position for encryption hold water in the U.S. when they sell unencrypted microchips everywhere on the planet except for U.S. Are you still listening to your 8 track player or watching black & white TV. Technology moves forward, move with it or get out of the way.

  By  Anonymous, at 9:16 AM, July 02, 2006  

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• Somebody please help me out. I am trying to leave the country next week with my cat. Can anyone tell me what I should do? My cat already has an Avid chip that supposedly cannot be read by the EU. So, my question is, what do I get her implanted with?? The Avid Euro Chip or the supposed two Home Again chips accepted by the EU (numbers 11784 and 11785, per the Feds). As someone new to all this craziness, this does seem like a screw-job. So, I have to have a second chip implanted? Or is that just going to create even more havoc? My boyfriend in Germany has checked for me a couple of times and the veterinarian he's spoken to has told him emphatically that it simply needs to be ISO-readable. He can't figure out what the big issue is. So, I just found a list that mentions Avid amongst those that are ISO compliant, so I'm assuming that's the Euro Chip. Can anyone help me figure this out?? And, by the way, I'm moving to Germany. So, it's important that I figure this out, but for all the "experts" I've spoken to, I still can't get a straight answer. Help!

  By  Anonymous, at 7:41 PM, July 11, 2006  

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• Chip readers in Europe are capable of reading both frequencies. It's only in the USA that ISO chips cannot be read.

  By  Steve, at 8:35 PM, July 11, 2006  

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• I recently inquired about microchipping my dogs the last time I took my dogs to Banfield (in Atlanta, Georgia, Late July, 2006). The information I was given is: Banfield implants 2 chips...both the 134.2 kHz chip (ISO) & the 125 kHz chip (more commonly found in the USA).

  By  Anonymous, at 6:10 PM, July 31, 2006  

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• Aren't you people missing something here? Isn't a pet identification device something that Animal-Loving Volunteer Strangers have a reasonable and foreseeable need to read? So if a pet identification device is deliberately made hard to read through designed-in cryptographic obfuscation, how can that not be a DEFECTIVE PRODUCT? And if the millions of AVID encrypted chips are a defective product, isn't that more serious to talk about than whether AVID was "seeding the marketplace" or trying to block competition, or even being a "Bully?" The ISO chips sold in the U.S. may have had a defective ROLLOUT STRATEGY, but they are not hard to read by design. My Max Microchip scanner, which you can build with parts from the Radio Shack and no soldering, reads them just fine, along with other Open Microchip Technology types such as the HomeAgain chip.
  
  I have a constructive purpose in suggesting that the AVID encrypted product should be considered defective. Sometimes it's possible to design a work-around for something that is defective, and the first step is to realize that a defect exists. You can read my proposed work-around for turning the AVID encrypted chips into Open Microchip Technology chips without requiring knowledge of the secret algorithm (and without surgery) at http://maxmicrochip.com/137.htm and decide for yourself if it's elegant or kludgey.
  
  Some have said that the U.S. Congress among others agreed on ISO technology. In fact, what Congress specified was "Open Microchip Technology." This is a much wider class of chips which includes even the AVID Encrypted chips if my proposal or a similar one is adopted.
  
  Datamars and Crystal Imports appear to have now obtained the decryption algorithm, maybe as a result or settlement of an antitrust action or maybe some other way. But they seem to be keeping it a secret just like AVID did, so this is not a victory for Open Microchip Technology; quite the opposite, it is an expansion of the Cartel of Secrets.
  
  P.S. Steve said on July 11, 2006 "Chip readers in Europe are capable of reading both frequencies." In fact, they probably use one frequency to read all protocols they understand, as does the Max Microchip. The chips operate at the frequency used by the scanner. (It's not really true that "The battle over the lucrative U.S. market for pet identification is based on frequency standards." The battle is over protocols and secrets.)
  
  A typical European scanner is likely to read HomeAgain and AVID Eurochip types, although these are not actually conformant under the ISO spec. Rather these types are more or less "grandfathered" by the spec.
  
  However, scanners that know the secrets to decode the AVID encrypted type may be much less common over there.

  By  Andy Kluck, at 10:53 PM, November 13, 2006  

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• I dont understand what the problem is. I went to banfield to microchip my dog yesterday and they automatically put in the 125 chip and the 134 chip (both of them) and the whole thing cost me $29.00. They inject 2 chips now to overcome the compatability issue

  By  Diamond Dog, at 8:40 AM, December 29, 2006  

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• Banfield does implant two chips now.. 125 & 134. And it costs much less than Avid or Homeagain. Avid is just trying to monopolize the market. Hopefully their patent expires soon. Then the microchip market will be opened to competition and lower prices.
  Also, Canada recently switched over to the 134 microchip. Unfortunately... we are the only one that use the outdated 125 chip. It seems like the US wants to be backwards on everything (electric/power...etc). Its called ISO for a reason. A standard that everyone can use and that will be compatible everywhere you go.

  By  Anonymous, at 3:17 PM, February 01, 2007  

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• Since Crystal readers are the only ones available that can read everything, Avid should shut up AND pay up. I am a veterinary technician, and my clinic has just started using Crystal chips. Homeagain began muscling us for more money, and no clinic I have been to has used Avid for years. The online registration for Homeagain is also very unreliable. Crystal has my support because they are inexpensive and universal. Other brands don't care about the animals which are the basis of their business.

  By  Anaughtybear, at 6:47 PM, March 10, 2007  

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• A.ll V.erified I.nfo D.isclosed! the "company" is a rip-off, they alter their scanners at pet shows to prove that theirs are better than anyone else, not true. they do not like rescues,shelters and people that have a million questions on the iso, if you try to call them tuff luck, they just sit down online,chatting and once your message goes on voicemail, they wait, after it reaches a certain high number they distribute the calls, majority are east coast,so by the time they call back its too late.they out source important "pet owner's" information , you will think it's all done under one roof-wrong. they would be backed up for months trying to enter information and send those confirmation letters, but you cant blame the employees, most of them dont care about your pets,if you are under paying employees than you pretty much get what you paid for. if you go to their call center, majority are either smoking or hanging out at the lunch room, avoiding the general manager, which she is also the manager for pettrac, shipping, manufacturing,sales,customer service, and everything under that roof.would you trust a company who just has one person in charge????? call her voice mail, pretty sure that is what you get, there will be times when product will be on back order, back order? how is a company so "BIG" run out of product? mismanagment perhaps? or like once the president copared his company with a fast food joint, "made to order" they once sent out chips that if quality control would of caught it , they would'nt have to explain that the frequency of the chip was too close , and the scanner had to be really close for thechip to read, but wait thats right they do not have quality control, their manufacturing and shipping consist of employees who all they can answer and understand is "yes" "sure" and "ok" wow! what a company, to trust on your best friends life. they were number one in their world,

  By  Anonymous, at 6:36 PM, May 23, 2007  

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• After looking into microchips in preparation for a move overseas, I am buying the Crystal Tag chip. It meets ISO Standards. ISO 11784 is the worldwide standard for these types of microchips. I am not sure why AVID would not want to use an international standard.
  
  It would be nice if everyone just used the same technology. Remember VHS and BETA? Currently Blu Ray and HDDVD.
  
  BTW, International standards make phone calls work, GPS Navigatoin, Credit Cards, Compact Discs, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc.
  
  In short, using an ISO standard is a very good thing.

  By  Anonymous, at 11:32 AM, July 05, 2007  

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• I didn't read all the comments so I don't know if this was brought up. I live in Japan and the GOJ just revised all their quarantine laws to line up with the EU. The owner of a dog entering the country with a non-ISO compatible chip has to bring along a scanner that will read the dog's chip to verify its identity.
  I have two Crystal scanners. They both read AVID chips. And I believe the base vet said the new AVID chips were readable, but I'm not sure.
  What's crazy is Japan mandates incoming pets be microchipped, but if they are lost the pounds don't scan: five days and it's off to the gas chamber unless the owner shows up.
  (They told me it's not fair to the owners of aggressive dogs that the approachable dogs can be scanned but theirs can't. So they just refuse to scan. Many of them don't have scanners. I donated two to the local pound. They are probably sitting on a shelf somewhere. The best thing in Japan is to donate them to police departments since many of them are much more humane than animal control.

  By  Anonymous, at 3:02 PM, July 11, 2007  

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• Banfield the pet hospital does use crystal tag... it uses both a 125 kHz and a 134.2 kHz ISO chip. They are implanting both to dogs and cats so that the burden of shelters is ceased. They also joined the American Veterinary Medical Association in the adoption of a national standard kind of chip system.

  By  Anonymous, at 3:05 PM, August 03, 2007  

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• We just lost our beloved eight year old manx who was chipped when she was spayed. I called to report her lost only to find they had no record of me or my pets at all! All that money down the drain and my poor kitty out there somewhere with a useless microchip because even if it is read and they call Avid they have no record.

  By  Amanda, at 12:02 AM, October 15, 2007  

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• i have just been to my vet with my new dog. the dog had been micrchipped in america, he has an avid chip in him. I asked the vet to check for the chip and guess what the chip cant be found!!!!
  Either the dog was not chipped as the breeder says or it has stopped working or it is notcompatible with the scanners in the UK.
  Anyone got any ideas?
  Does anyone know an e-mail address for avid so i can ask them?

  By  bizzylizzy1uk, at 11:40 PM, January 23, 2008  

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• why dose the avid chip not scan in the UK

  By  bizzylizzy1uk, at 11:41 PM, January 23, 2008  

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