Is it Safe to Microchip Animals? Malta Government Has Mandated Microchipping of dogs



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Recently a Trust group in Malta offered dogs a free health check, worth about €300, together with free “Micro-chipping as a safe, and effective way of reuniting lost pets.” Many phoned on radio, asking if dogs implanted with microchips could suffer or become effected with cancer. The reply was NO, but reports one can easily research on the INTERNET show quite a different picture.

Owners kept asking, because in other countries dogs had developed cancerous tumours around the microchip implants, killing some dogs and leaving others terminally ill, ending up having to put to sleep the latter! Besides reports – pathology and autopsy reports from these owners, there has been scientific research carried out about this subject, which suggests microchipping is not safe at all.

UPDATE:
We are going to launch a petition in the next few days, so keep updated by checking our site or like our Facebook page for details.

There are more cases and studies being reported.. it is NOT just one study which has determined this.
The latest studies found tumours in fruit bats,
The microchipping is now obligatory from now. The Malta Vetinarary Association has published a press release with a number of issues it deems important about this. Apparently the MVA was not involved in this hasty decision and there are issues for owners who cannot pay this new “tax” on their dogs – abandoned dogs will be picked up by the police and if nobody claims them within 7 days, the dogs will apparently be “put to sleep”..
What will happen to dog sanctuaries is anybody’s guess. I think they may have to close down their operations and hand on their dogs to the government.

Is there a Medical risk?

Microchips and micro-chipping was reported by J.Butler on 16th February, 2009 in article titled “Should I Microchip My Dog?”. A long haired Chihuahua hemorrhaged to death in California, USA in 2009, after the implantation of a microchip. Pressure bandages did not stop the bleeding and with no major blood vessels in that area and the absence of a congenital clotting problem came up, the bleeding remained a mystery.

Other dangers include the misplacement of a chip in a struggling animal causing death or paralysis, and chips migrating within the pet’s body causing abscesses and infection. Cancer has also been linked to microchip use when several cases of dogs developing tumors around or near the implant have been reported in the USA and other European countries.

Another factual Story:
A 5-year-old bull-mastiff named Seamus died after developing a hemangio-sarcoma – a malignant form of cancer that can kill even humans in three to six months, explains privacy expert, syndicated best-selling author Dr. Katherine Albrecht, who relates the woeful stories of non-working microchips in pets. Microchips can cause cancer, migrate and often do not work. A family complied with EU requirements for vaccinations and microchips when traveling from the UK to France.

Albrecht, an outspoken opponent of implantable microchips, has been contacted by pet owners after their animals experienced what they believe to be side effects from the procedure. In a pathology report, Seamus’ tumor appeared between his shoulder blades last year, and by September a “large mass” had grown with the potential to spread to his lungs, liver and spleen.

Seamus underwent emergency surgery, and doctors extracted a 4-pound, 3-ounce tumor from the dog. They used four drains to remove fluid from the area in which the tumor had developed. The veterinarian informed the dog’s owner, Howard Gillis, that there had been two microchips embedded in Seamus – one presumably inserted by the dog’s breeder when Seamus was only 9 months old. The chips were both located in and around the tumor. In just three months, the cancer returned. Seamus, a once energetic dog, struggled to walk. Seamus “was 150 pounds of heart,” Howard Gillis, the dog’s owner, said in a recent interview. “He wanted to live.”

The Associated Press in an article, referred to veterinary and toxicology studies, from the mid-1990s, indicating that microchip implants had “induced” malignant tumors in some lab mice and rats.
The article quoted Keith Johnson, a retired toxicologic pathologist, saying that “the transponders were the cause of the tumors”. He explained in a phone interview the findings of a 1996 study he led at the Dow Chemical Co. in Midland, Mich.

The AP wrote “Leading cancer specialists reviewed the research for The Associated Press and, while cautioning that animal test results do not necessarily apply to humans, said the findings troubled them.

Any persons intending to microchip their pets should be made aware of the risks. Will the SPCA and other organisations speak up, or will they stay silent, even though there is wide scientifc research about this?

To end the suffering, Seamus was put to sleep in February. In the opinion of Malta Network Resources, MicroChipping on dogs and cats could be dangerous, no matter what some may say.

Further Reading:
http://www.antichips.com/cancer/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/08/AR2007090800997_pf.html

References
1: Synopsis of Microchip-Induced Tumors in Laboratory Rodents and Dogs: A Review of the Literature 1990–2006 (Katherine Albrecht, Ed.D.)
Accessed at http://jacques.prestreau.pagesperso-orange.fr/tortues/pdf/puce-cancers/albrecht-microchip-cancer-synopsis-1.pdf
2: Fibrosarcoma with typical features of postinjection sarcoma at site of microchip implant in a dog: histologic and immunohistochemical study (M Vascellari, E Melchiotti… – Veterinary Pathology …, 2006 )
Accessed at http://vet.sagepub.com/content/43/4/545.full
3: Subcutaneous microchip-associated tumours in B6C3F1 mice: A retrospective study to attempt to determine their histogenesis (S Le Calvez, MF Perron-Lepage… – … and Toxicologic Pathology, 2006 – Elsevier)
4: Should I microchip my dog? J. Butler
Accessed at http://www.suite101.com/content/should-i-microchip-my-dog-a96693
5. MICROCHIP-ASSOCIATED LEIOMYOSARCOMA IN AN EGYPTIAN FRUIT BAT (ROUSETTUS AEGYPTIACUS) (Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine 38(2):352-356. 2007 )
6. Microchip-Associated Sarcoma in a Shrew (Suncus murinus) (Journal of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science, Volume 49, Number 5, 2010)
7. Dogs Suffer Cancer After Microchipping. Accessed at
http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=131533