Microchipping canines is pretty much a done deal for many people, municipalities and countries. No one thinks twice about it. I didn’t think anything about it until we became a breeder. Now Jozie and I question everything we do because we want to do the right thing. So when it comes to microchipping we naturally did a lot of research on the subject as well.
I started by doing simple google search on microchipping and cancer in dogs and wound up at PetCure Oncology, a premiere pet cancer business, and on their pet cancer myths debunked page state “we have begun hearing rumors that microchipping can cause cancer” and go on to say the current studies that show correlation can be overlooked.
This led me to look up the studies and I found what they said on their website to be slightly misleading. Misleading because 1. There are no reporting mechanisms, that I can find, to report cancer in pets from microchips 2. A search on PubMed yielded no results for any longitudinal study past six years for a correlation between soft tissue sarcoma and canine microchips and 3. The cancer rates in the rats were found incidentally in both the experimental and the control groups.
You can read about the rats in a 2007 Associated Press article by Todd Lewan and watch a more in depth explanation on why the findings should not be overlooked in a 2010 IEEE talk by Dr. Katherine Albrecht (the most relevant info is in the first twenty-five minutes). What we came away with is that the potential cancer rate cannot be overlooked at least until a full life longitudinal study is investigated and that Jozie and I can not and will not make the final decision for your fur baby on microchipping. What this means is we will not microchip your new family member, and if you wish to microchip, talk to your vet during your well pet check-up.