RFID chips to track missing pets
Good news for pet owners! The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) plans to inject radio-frequency identification (RFID)-based chips in dogs and other animals to enable owners locate them in case they are found missing.
The chips would have a reader in which the vaccination and other details of dogs/animals would also be included. The corporation would provide the chips at a nominal cost of `100.
The corporation has also decided to launch the GHMC ABC application which is under final stages of testing.
According to GHMC officials, the corporation is receiving numerous dogmissing complaints. Therefore, before issuing the pet licence, the corporation plans to get the service provider inject the chips into dog’s body. The agency will also provide the dog owner with equipment to read the data.
The chip will be provided with a unique ID number. Information including the names of the pet and the owner, his/her residential address, history of the dog’s vaccination, the next vaccination date, and the latitude and longitude information will be stored in the chip.
The corporation will intimate the next vaccination date through a text message to the owner. Officials would check the database at regular intervals. If the vaccination data is not updated for a period of a year, the pet owner will be prosecuted.
In case of any dog missing complaint, the GHMC would press its teams into action. With the help of the RFID reader, the dog squads can easily identify the dog, its location and go through medical history. “Once we place the RFID reader near the chip, the history of the pet will be displayed with a beep sound on the monitor. If we detect fake ownership, the guilty will be prosecuted. The pet owner should immediately report to the GHMC in case a pet dog is found missing,” a GHMC official said.
He said a Noida-based company has given the representation on the chip’s functioning. The firm has promised to provide quality chips at a nominal price of `100. The price might even come down. “The RFID tags would likely be used in a month’s time. It is yet to receive the final nod from the higher authorities.” The IT wing has done multiple testing, he said.
The GHMC has developed an ABC application to minimise the stray dog menace. Dog catchers should take live photos using the app, in which the locational longitude and latitude will be marked. After performing animal birth control (ABC) and anti-rabies vaccination (ARV) programmes, the dogs have to be left in the same location, through live photos, for approval from the appl. The official said that this data will not only help the corporation squads track the location of stray dogs but also control the menace in the GHMC limits. GHMC would spend `1,500 on each dog in the city limits for vaccination and birth control operations. After implementing a pilot project pertaining to the ABC and ARV programmes, the civic body would, in conformity with the Animal Welfare Board of India and Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Rules 2001, invite tenders and shortlist five animal welfare organisations to sterilise about 10,000 stray dogs for a year, officials said.