Do I really need a pet tag? We get asked this question a lot, so we thought it would be best to write up why it's best to collar and tag your furry friend.
Lost Pets:
Pets get lost all the time... It's not a rare occurrence, just check your local Facebook groups, there's always posts for missing pets. Dogs will go for a wander just because they can or because of a gate that swings open in the wind. Hopefully if your dog goes for a walk it returns home, but there's no guarantee on this. What if someone picks your dog up? there are many things that can go wrong.
We have personally seen many posts of collected pets with no identification on them with people looking to return.
We also all let our cats outside when they want to go outside with a reasonable expectation they'll be home eventually to eat or sleep or just to harass us. But what happens when they don't come home?
Cats can wander very far distances. Pumpkin for example will travel 15 houses down across the road to visit our old house and the neighbours. He always comes home, but we had to collect him a couple of times at the start as he got confused and couldn't find his way home. Luckily the neighbour knows who he is and got in contact. Even if no one knew who he was we have always had a collar and tag on him at all times for peace of mind.
Microchip:
But my pet has a microchip so why does it matter?
Great question!... Let me ask you a simple question, do you on your person right now have a chip reader? (any vets reading this... Yes I know you probably do.. no need to brag)
But... The average citizen does not have easy access to a scanner so cannot easily identify who owns the animal.
So how does that help if someone finds your pet in and it needs urgent medical attention? What if your pet is feeding from the neighbours and they want to contact you to let you know?
Now we're not trying to say microchips are redundant at all. We have all our cats chipped and would always strongly suggest you do the same as it's the last backup that can't be lost. But its not instant identification.
Collar return:
Our cats have lost a few collars over the years as we refuse to use a non breakaway collar nor do we stock them anywhere in our store, so it's a fact of life that collars can sometimes just vanish without a trace.
We've also had them returned to us by someone finding them and contacting the number on the tag, the last time was in October this year.
Bling & Status:
Your pets will look dapper with a pet tag made just for them. We can create anything you can think of, or there's plenty we've already done. And we're always looking for the next idea when it comes to pet tags, next we'll be testing collar worn tags that eliminate the sound made from tags banging together.
Message to the world:
Tell the neighbours to bugger off and stop feeding your cat. We'll print pretty much anything on a tag that's not seriously offensive, or just plain bad taste.
We've had requests for a tag that says "Don't call my people they know I wander!" as they were getting regular calls from concerned people in the neighbourhood claiming the cat was lost, following them, or being too friendly.
We do custom bone tags and people have been very creative with that idea. In fact some will appear in our next release!
Check out our range here:
For Cats:
Premium Laser Engraved Cat ID Pet Tags
For Dogs:
Premium Laser Engraved Dog ID Pet Tags
Cat Collars:
NZ's largest range of cat collars!
www.pmw.nz