"This is incredibly shady" - Pet owners express concern after Save This Life microchip company shuts down without notice

In February 2025, the national pet microchip company Save This Life shut down without warning. This has led to confusion and concern among pet owners and animal care providers all over the country. Thousands of pets' microchip information cannot be accessed following the sudden shutdown, which has increased the possibility of pets failing to be returned to their owners in case they get lost.

A concerned Redditor pointed out:

“This is incredibly shady. My dog is registered with them and I know for a fact it is up to date, since I just changed my address with them a couple of weeks ago. They didn’t email, call, or anything. It would be a simple thing to do at least an email.”

Another commenter said:

“I called and it was an out of service number. I emailed them as well and did not get a response back yet.”

A user mentioned:

“Is that even legal? I would have thought in their terms there would be a clause for an instance like this, like offloading to a third party handler who manages temporarily. Because that is a hell of a lot of liability they are taking on by deleting animal microchip data with no consent.”

One user went on to claim:

“There’s a lost cat hanging around our house, and the vet that scanned for his chip this morning said it was registered with Save This Life. This is totally someone’s cat, but now we can’t get in touch with the owner!”

A user said:

“Wow. If I wasn't a Reddit addict I wouldn't have known. They should have contacted their clients. It is not like they didn't have our contact info. I hope all the vets post this information in their office. For goodness sake what a false sense of security.”

John Teegarden from Catoosa Small Animal Hospital, a long-time user of Save This Life microchips, reported that he had problems contacting the company since its phones were down.

Teegarden told News9:

"We couldn't get a hold of the manufacturer, to understand, 'Hey, is this just a glitch with the system?'"

Dan Cody, Executive Director of Humane Animal Rescue of Pittsburgh (HARP), added that they found it difficult to get in touch with Save This Life in the past six months in case an animal was carrying their microchip.

Talking to News9, Cody said,

“Microchipping is an absolutely crucial tool for reuniting pets with their families when they get lost.”

Merrick Animal Hospital in Brookfield also communicated via their Facebook page that they have delinked all microchip registrations from Save This Life from the universal microchip lookup tool.

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The importance of Microchipping

Microchips play a vital role in reuniting lost pets with their families. These tiny devices, implanted under the pet's skin, contain a unique identification number that veterinarians, animal shelters, and police stations can scan.

The microchip number is then used to locate the pet owner's contact information in a registry.

Susanna Wickham, CEO of PAWS Chicago, emphasized the importance of microchipping, stating that they microchipped 10,000 dogs and cats the previous year, excluding those from their adoption program.

She told CBS News that a surprising number of pets lack microchips and that people often overlook this until their pet gets lost.

“There's a surprising number of pets we see that don't have a microchip, and people don't realize how, I think, common that is, and people don't really think about it until their pet is lost.”

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Re-registration of microchips

Experts say that the shutdown of Save This Life is a registry issue rather than one with the microchips themselves. Therefore, pet owners whose pets are microchipped through Save This Life need to re-register their microchips with another company so that contact information may be made accessible.

Speaking with News9, Teegarden told pet owners to take proactive steps to re-register their pets' microchips with a different online registry. He assures them the chip is still working and does not need to be reimplanted.

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How to check and re-register

To find out if a pet's microchip was registered with Save This Life, pet owners can:

Go to a local veterinarian's office, police station, or animal shelter to have the microchip scanned.

Enter the microchip number into the AAHA Universal Microchip Lookup Tool.

If the microchip number starts with 991 or 900164, it is likely a Save This Life microchip and needs re-registration.

Dan Cody recommends registering with reputable companies like AKC Reunite, PetLink, or 24PetWatch.

Meanwhile, Dr. Crystal Sapp of Michigan Humane told Fox2 Detroit that pet owners should not rely on microchips alone for the identification of their pets. She advises that in addition to collars with tags, pets must have other identification.