Safety of microchiped question

[Shadow]

linked to tumors http://news.aol.com/story/ar/_a/chip...10092109990001

[yorkiesmiles]

I saw this online today too. I have always wondered about micro-chipping. I always said I would never do it - makes me think we are getting to close to doing it to humans & The Mark of The Beast.

But when I adopted my dogs, the previous owner had already micro-chipped them & then I come on YT & so many tell stories of the chip helping them find their dogs.

I don't know - but I'm not surprised by the link between cancer & the chip because I think its kind of hard to put a foreign object into a body that God designed without there being some type of problem. I know there are manmade objects in bodies helping people continue living - but I believe most of those are routinely monitored. Who moniters pet chips?

I know I would never put a chip in me.

[COyorkieLover]

Thats terrifying! I am bringing my new puppy home on Sunday, and I was all set to have him micro-chipped. But, now I'm not sure if it is in his best interest

[Emmsmom]

This is one of many reasons that I won't get Diesel microchipped. I agree with Yorkiesmiles. I just don't think it is a good idea.

[La Princesa]

My dogs were chipped before i got them. If it was up to me With this information I would not have micro chipped them.

Sorry I reposted I went to the news section to see if it was up yet and i looked for the title of the article in here and not the general subject.

[Emmsmom]

Yeah I can certainly undertand. Many pups are already chipped and it can't be avoided.

[La Princesa]

Originally Posted by yorkiesmiles

I saw this online today too. I have always wondered about micro-chipping. I always said I would never do it - makes me think we are getting to close to doing it to humans & The Mark of The Beast.

I know I would never put a chip in me.

OMG! you thought about the mark of the beast too!

I had that whole scenario running through my head. I was thinking what if this was manditory and we needed it for every thing!
What if one person in a group got the chip to get supplies... then that one person would not be able to buy for a group without being question about the excess of supplies.

I am not wit this AT ALL!

[MyFairLacy]

K...I wish we could link the two threads on this same topic...here is my response from the other one:

There's not much proof in that article... First of all, lab rats and mice get cancer so easily. It's almost pointless to compare cancer-causing agents in mice to humans..or dogs and cats for that matter. Secondly, out of hundreds of thousands of dogs and cats chipped in the past 15 years, there has been no report of chips causing cancer. A study was done that found 2 dogs with sarcomas in the neck region: 1 which had a sarcoma around the chip and was said to be caused by the chip and 1 in which the cause of cancer was unknown. Okay.....so 1, maybe 2, dogs out of hundreds of thousands developed a tumor because of a microchip? That's an extrememly small amount... Plus, there is always going to be a risk with anything - there is always one out of how every many thousands that could have a reaction to a vaccine or die from anasthesia...And yeah, it sucks to be that one...but overall it's such a tiny risk..and the chances of having a problem are so small. There is a much larger risk of my dog being lost or stolen than her microchip causing her to develop cancer. I would much rather have my dog returned to me. I think a lot of these "lab rat" studies are a bunch of bull anyway...like sweet & low causing cancer....yeah, when a lab rat gets its body weight in saccharine every day for like a year! It's just rediculous. You can't take every study at face value...you really have to know how to interpret the results... Anyway, I will continue to have my pets chipped because I believe to to be almost 100% safe. It always surprises me to hear that people are afraid to get their pets chipped...


Also don't believe everything you hear/read...most of it's a bunch of hype. If chips were really dangerous, we would have already heard of a lot of dogs and cats getting cancer since we've been chipping for 15 years!

[Sadie's Mom]

Sadie si sucha runner (and so friendly to everyone that she meets) that I'd be scared NOT to chip her. THere are so many stories of lost dogs being returned to their owners b/c of the chip. I'm not convinced on the tumor yet. I'm not saying it's not possible, but I'm just not convinced. I'd have to see more studies.

[zoeybear]

Im chipping Zoey next week. I never had any "ethical" problem with it. I am not worried about cancer since the average life span of a dog is relativley short compared to humans. It seems that people would be screaming at the top of their lungs if this was causing cancer in dogs. Look how people cried out over the pet food recalls. I agree it "may" in a rare instance cause a tumor in some dogs, but the numbers must be very small. Im sure more dogs probably die from second hand smoke than chips.

[La Princesa]

Originally Posted by MyFairLacy

K...I wish we could link the two threads on this same topic...here is my response from the other one:

There's not much proof in that article... First of all, lab rats and mice get cancer so easily. It's almost pointless to compare cancer-causing agents in mice to humans..or dogs and cats for that matter. Secondly, out of hundreds of thousands of dogs and cats chipped in the past 15 years, there has been no report of chips causing cancer. A study was done that found 2 dogs with sarcomas in the neck region: 1 which had a sarcoma around the chip and was said to be caused by the chip and 1 in which the cause of cancer was unknown. Okay.....so 1, maybe 2, dogs out of hundreds of thousands developed a tumor because of a microchip? That's an extrememly small amount... Plus, there is always going to be a risk with anything - there is always one out of how every many thousands that could have a reaction to a vaccine or die from anasthesia...And yeah, it sucks to be that one...but overall it's such a tiny risk..and the chances of having a problem are so small. There is a much larger risk of my dog being lost or stolen than her microchip causing her to develop cancer. I would much rather have my dog returned to me. I think a lot of these "lab rat" studies are a bunch of bull anyway...like sweet & low causing cancer....yeah, when a lab rat gets its body weight in saccharine every day for like a year! It's just rediculous. You can't take every study at face value...you really have to know how to interpret the results... Anyway, I will continue to have my pets chipped because I believe to to be almost 100% safe. It always surprises me to hear that people are afraid to get their pets chipped...


Also don't believe everything you hear/read...most of it's a bunch of hype. If chips were really dangerous, we would have already heard of a lot of dogs and cats getting cancer since we've been chipping for 15 years!

I hear ya but as for me i read and they seemed pretty honest with the statistics which i appreciated. the percentage of getting cancer was 1% per thousands... what ever number it was. I figured a 1% chance is low but I don't want to be putting things in my dog that already add to his chance of getting chancer. I lost my grandma to cancer my 42year old aunt to the same cancer and now I will be losing my dad to another type of cancer... I just like to be informed about all sides of an issue before i make my choice, and this side of the issue wasn't told to many. Just like with anesthesia or any part of a surgery they tell you u may not survive, but they do tell you. Weather it scares some and not others, we all deserve to know factors before a choice is made... its just fair i think. i had an uncle die on the operating table as well, so as for me. I like to be informed and make informed decisions. Yes i am glad my babies have the chip as far as getting lost or stolen and having a better chance of being recovered, but i don't like the fact that i could be putting something in them that may make them ill or die.

I really so appreciate what you posted though...

[COyorkieLover]

Ok, so i know its only a very small chance that doing this would cause cancer in my baby. And, its very possible that the good aspects of getting your puppy chipped verses the negative my highly out-way the bad. So, in the end I will probably get him chipped. But at the same time I don't like the idea that 5 years down the road he may be sick from something I did to him...

[MyFairLacy]

I came to the conclusion a long time ago that EVERYTHING has the potential to cause cancer... But if I took all those things out of my life, I couldn't go anywhere, do anything, eat anything, drink anything

[PennysMum]

I really think the benefits of chips outweigh the risks. I work at an animal hospital, and whenever a found stray is brought to us, we will scan them with a microchip reader. We've reunited many, many dogs and cats with their owners thanks to microchips-- including one cat who we found six months after he was lost two states away! The cat was a beautiful purebred Maine Coon, and the owner believed that he had been stolen rather than simply lost. Apparently the cat later escaped from the people who had taken him and was wandering as a stray for a while until he was found by a kind person and brought to our clinic to be checked over. His family had lost all hope of ever seeing him again, and without that chip we'd have had no way of ever tracing him all the way back to them. I'll never forget the joy in the voice of the owner when I called him to let him know we'd found his cat-- he was on the edge of tears, and he immediately left work and drove straight to us to pick the kitty up.

As scary as the idea of tumors may be, I find the idea of one of my furkids ending up lost and alone miles and miles away to be even more scary. I've been chipping all my pets since the day we found that cat's family thanks to his microchip, and I still really think that microchips are great.

[MyFairLacy]

Originally Posted by PennysMum

I really think the benefits of chips outweigh the risks. I work at an animal hospital, and whenever a found stray is brought to us, we will scan them with a microchip reader. We've reunited many, many dogs and cats with their owners thanks to microchips-- including one cat who we found six months after he was lost two states away! The cat was a beautiful purebred Maine Coon, and the owner believed that he had been stolen rather than simply lost. Apparently the cat later escaped from the people who had taken him and was wandering as a stray for a while until he was found by a kind person and brought to our clinic to be checked over. His family had lost all hope of ever seeing him again, and without that chip we'd have had no way of ever tracing him all the way back to them. I'll never forget the joy in the voice of the owner when I called him to let him know we'd found his cat-- he was on the edge of tears, and he immediately left work and drove straight to us to pick the kitty up.

As scary as the idea of tumors may be, I find the idea of one of my furkids ending up lost and alone miles and miles away to be even more scary. I've been chipping all my pets since the day we found that cat's family thanks to his microchip, and I still really think that microchips are great.

that story reminds me of one I saw on Animal Planet once. A cat had been lost for years - like 8-10 years...and it was found on the other side of the country! It had received one of the first microchips years ago before it was lost, and all those years later ended up completely across the country where it was scanned. The owners were contacted and they flew to pick it up.