26/02/2025
Please check your dog’s microchip and where they are registered
PSA: YOUR COMPANION ANIMAL’S MICROCHIP MIGHT SOON BE USELESS.
HomeSafeID is one of the major animal registry companies that store your pet’s information.
But earlier this month, the site's administrator announced the company “is likely to go offline” due to unpaid bills.
Thousands of Australian pets might soon be without a microchip, and pets chipped through them will no longer be recognised when scanned unless they are transferred over to another microchip registration company.
If your companion animal becomes lost, vets and shelters will have no way of finding or verifying you as the owner.
To avoid this, make sure to check if your pet is registered with HomeSafeID via this website: petaddress.com.au
Once you enter your furry friend’s microchip number*, the site will guide you to other registries where you can transfer your pet’s details (this may incur a small fee).
*If you don’t know it, vets and shelters can scan your pet to find it for you.
This situation is just one part of a much bigger issue with pet microchip registries in Australia – the lack of national oversight.
Right now, there are no rules, regulations, or even guidelines on how private microchip registries should operate.
If a database shuts down, there’s no system in place to ensure pet information is automatically transferred to another registry.
That’s why Australia needs a unified, reliable microchip provider.
The Animal Justice Party addressed this issue in the Taskforce on Rehoming Pets report back in 2021. Yet, we’re still pushing for action today.
We urgently need a dependable microchip provider to ensure that hundreds of thousands of pets don’t end up with faulty chips.
Without this, lost pets could needlessly end up in shelters or pounds, and animals that should have been reunited with their families might instead be adopted out – or worse, euthanised.
Microchips greatly improve the chances of lost pets being reunited with their families.
So please, spread this far and wide – it could be the lifeline that brings your lost pet back home one day.
- Georgie Purcell - Animal Justice Party MP
