College Park installed two self-service pet microchip scanning stations in March to help residents quickly reunite lost dogs and cats with their owners. 

The stations, located outside City Hall on Yale Avenue and the Davis Hall Public Works facility on 51st Avenue, are available at all times for residents who find lost animals.

“It seems a good majority of the conversations on Nextdoor are lost pets or found pets,” College Park City Councilmember Alan Hew (District 1) said. “A lot of times these pets are found on the weekend, and the city and the county don’t have personnel on staff … so there are delays.”

The city used leftover funds from its defunct Animal Welfare Committee to install the scanners without affecting the city budget, according to Hew. 

“I was so excited to hear about it, because it’s just so much more convenient,” Jessika Alvarado, a College Park resident, local cat rescuer and pet owner, said. 

Residents who find a dog or cat can bring the animal to one of the self-service stations and use a handheld scanner attached to the unit. Residents pass the scanner over the neck and back of the animal in order to detect a microchip, which has a unique identification number. 

“So you hold the scanner to the cat … and if there’s a chip there, the number appears,” Stephanie Stullich, a former city councilmember, local cat rescuer and pet owner, said. 

Microchips are tiny devices containing radio frequencies implanted by veterinarians that have an identification number linked to the owner’s contact information. But the system only works if the chip is registered.

“If it’s not registered, it doesn’t do any good at all,” Stullich said. 

If a chip is detected, a digital number will appear on the scanner. Then, the person with the pet uses a phone camera to scan a QR code on the scanner station. A link will appear on the phone that takes the user to the website of the American Animal Hospital Association, a registry where veterinarians register microchip ID numbers.

From there, contact information for the registry where the dog or cat is identified appears on the phone and the person who found the animal can reach out. Then, the registry will contact the pet’s owner.

According to the College Park Animal Hospital, one in three pets gets lost over the course of their lifetime and, without identification, 90% of them are never returned to their homes.

The City of College Park holds occasional clinics at which veterinarians will chip and register pets for $50. 

The stations are intended for both dogs and cats; however, Stullich noted that dogs are easier to bring to the locations whereas cats may need to be trapped to get them there. 

Hew said the scanners add convenience and reduce delays, especially if animals are found at night or on the weekends. Previously, residents often had to wait for animal control officers or veterinarians to scan the pet. 

“This just puts that tool in everybody’s hands,” Stullich said. 

The scanners may help reduce stress for animals by reducing shelter stays, Hew said. Instead of waiting days for a shelter to identify the owner, residents can reconnect with their lost pets more quickly. 

Alvarado said she once lost her friend’s dog while dog-sitting, and that a scanner would have been helpful at the time.

“It was the most stressful experience of my life,” she said. 

“People love their pets. … If it does get lost, that can be devastating,” Stullich said. “This is a tool that can help those lost pets get back to their families.” 

Hew said the city might install additional scanners if the two originals get a lot of use.

“It was an easy thing they could do to serve the community better,” Hew said.