Avid's Dog Breeders Newsletter
Cathy Hutcheson
March 9, 2005
National Companion Animal Coalition
339, rue Booth Street
Ottawa ON K1R 7K1
Dear Mr. McCann,
Thank you for your response letter of February 7/05. I appreciate you taking the time to address my questions and concerns. After reading in your letter that the NCAC is not a regulatory body, has no authority to provide enforcement or impose penalties and merely consists of four national associations who share a common thread for companion animals, I have to ask, what is stopping other national associations from putting together a group with a belief that the FECAVA, AVID Encrypted, Trovan or another standard of microchip would be a better choice for the good of companion animals? When your group decided that the ISO standard was the right choice, did you put this decision to vote amongst the members of each of the four national associations, such as the veterinarians, animal shelters and breeders who will all be affected by this decision?
Since the distribution of the NCAC's announcement by the CKC to dog breeders and the CVMA to veterinarian clinics, we have had a flood of inquires and concerns. The following questions have been asked and I am unable to answer them. It would be most helpful if you could provide some assistance with them.
If Canada is supposedly following Europe's transition to ISO and the European Pet Passport Laws accept FECAVA standard microchips (per July 3/04 news release), why is Canada expected to discontinue the use of FECAVA, especially by such an immediate deadline as August 1/05? If the International Standards Organization recognizes the FECAVA (Annex A of ISO Standard 11785) 125 kHz microchip as ISO compliant and it is readable by all commonly used scanners worldwide, why is it so important to make a transition to a 134.2 kHz microchip that is not readable by all scanners? What will happen if the USA does not adopt the ISO standard (just like they did not adopt the metric system)? Should the USA not follow, vet clinics and breeders are concerned with the necessity and added expense of carrying both ISO and FECAVA standard chips and, in many cases, implanting both microchips in one pet when transported to the USA to reside or to be registered with the AKC. What will happen if a majority of users still do not have the scanners in place to support ISO by the August 1/05 deadline? Who will be responsible if a case of euthanasia is discovered due to the inability to read an ISO microchip?
In closing, I received your email reminder of the upcoming review. Could you please provide further information on the review process. I would like to know what independent lab or governing body has been elected to review and either approve or disapprove each of the ISO products submitted by the microchip providers? Please define the process in which these products are to be tested and what minimum parameters are set for the products to meet in order to be approved? For example: Will only laser produced ISO microchips be accepted or will one-time programmable ISO microchips also be accepted? (I heard that one-time programmable microchips have a much shorter life span than laser programmed microchips.) Are the scanners required to be "dual" or "universal"? In otherwords, will they only have to read the 125 kHz FECAVA and the 134.2 kHz ISO, or will they also be required to read the 400 kHz microchips distributed in Canada in the late 80's, early 90's and/or detect the AVID Encrypted standard used in the USA? How many years must the microchip providers supply scanners capable of reading both backward and forward?
Thank you in advance for your attention. I am grateful for any assistance you can provide in clarifying the NCAC's position and in helping me to address the many calls we are receiving daily from microchip users. We look forward to receiving the details on the approval process so that we can provide them to our supplier with our request for ISO products. Please also advise if products submitted for review will be returned once testing has been completed.
Sincerely,
Cathy Hutcheson
Sales & Marketing Director
Avid Canada
14, 6143 - 4th Street S.E, Calgary, AB, Canada T2H 2H9
Toll Free: 1-800-338-1397 (Ext. 225)
Ph: (403) 264-6300
Fax: (403) 263-2055
Email: cathyh@avidcanada.com.
Download Mr. McCann Response (pdf)
