PITTSBURGH -- A pet microchip is so small, you don't even know it's there -- and neither does your pet. It's like having big brother watching over the animal.

But do chips really work if your dog or cat gets loose?

Many stray dogs and cats are taken to Triangle Pet in McKees Rocks after they get caught without a collar or tags.

"Animal Friends takes 90 percent of our dogs, but if they get a mean pit bull, they can't take that and adopt it to nobody," said Triangle's chief animal control officer, Paul McIntyre, who services 77 boroughs and townships.

"But they can't take every dog either," said Channel 4 Action News reporter Kelly Frey.

"Right, they can't save every dog," said McIntyre.

If your dog or cat is lost, do you know what to do, where to go, or who to call? A microchip -- no bigger than a grain of rice -- could get them back.

"When it beeps, that's how we know that this animal has a microchip and we trace it via this number," McIntyre said.

Every animal that passes through local shelters like the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society is given a microchip. Just one small pinch, and it's done.

"Pick up the skin, tent it, right in, and you are done," said Dr. Angelina DeSanctis, a veterinarian with the humane society.

Local shelters use microchips from Avid, one of the world's largest chip companies worldwide. The chip gives off low-frequency radio waves, and the scanner displays an identification number. Punch that number into the database, and you have the registered owner.

But that's where problems begin.

"It is actually an issue more with the microchip companies," said DeSanctis. "They are making unique technology which makes only their scanners able to pick up their microchips. So, there is a universal scanner which claims to pick up many of the microchips that the companies provide."

When she tested a universal scanner on a known Avid chip, it told her she had a chip but it didn't say the number.

"It can be confusing," said DeSanctis.

It can also cause delays, but in most cases, another scanner will pick up the chip ID.

The real mess comes when owners move or change their phone numbers and don't update their information with the chip company or the shelter where they adopted their pet.

"The microchip is only as good as the database against it," said Joy Kealy, of the humane society.

Chip technology is also creating legal issues that have never been seen before.

"People were surrendering (an animal), and it had a microchip. I called those other people and they said, 'Oh my gosh, we lost that dog three years ago,'" said Kealy.

Kealy has even had people tell her they are dropping off a stray, only to be caught in an embarrassing lie.

"I had one man that turned pale at the front desk," Kealy said. "I scanned it and I said, 'Oh, your stray has a microchip and I was punching it in.' He said, 'I have to confess that was my cat.'"

Some chips have also been known to wander inside an animal's body.

But for every issue, shelter and animal control officials agree the chip is worth it as an invisible insurance policy to get your pet back.

"That's a great day when we can make a match and the other person is crying on the end of the line that we have found their pet. That's the best feeling," Kealy said.

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