Microchipping your pet is considered standard practice. In fact, over 3.5 million pets in the US have tiny, rice-sized chips embedded in them. These microchips help reunite lost pets with their owners. However, what happens when the company responsible for tracking those chips goes out of business? That’s exactly what’s happening with a Texas-based microchip company, Save This Life.

The Case of Save This Life: What’s Going Wrong?

Save This Life is a company that has been keeping track of pet microchips across the United States. However, recent reports from the Washington Post revealed troubling news: the company has been listed as inactive in Texas’ comptroller tax records. Even though the company’s website is still live, attempts to contact them through emails, phone calls, or inquiries have been met with silence. Pet owners, shelters, and veterinarians are worried because Save This Life may hold data on hundreds of thousands of microchips.

How Does Microchipping Work?

The microchip in your pet doesn’t actually store any personal information. Instead, when a veterinarian scans the chip, they get an 8-12 digit number that leads them to the microchip company’s database. From there, the company can provide the pet’s details and help reunite it with its owner.

It’s essentially a case of digital property rights. When you pay to microchip your pet, you expect the information to be accessible for life. This is what Save This Life promises, but what happens when the company goes out of business?

The Problem with Digital Property Rights

This situation raises a broader concern about digital property rights. As technology becomes more intertwined with our everyday lives, more of our personal data is being stored and controlled by for-profit companies. While pet microchips may seem like a small-scale issue, it touches on a much bigger question: What happens when these companies go under, and who is responsible for ensuring that customers’ access to their data remains intact?

For example, think about an online-only video game that is shut down by the developer. If you bought the game, you lose access to it. The developer has no obligation to refund your money, and the game disappears into the digital ether. This might not seem like a big deal for a video game, but as more and more critical information is stored digitally—whether for pets, people, or businesses—what happens when those companies disappear?

Is Profit Taking Priority Over Pets?

In the case of Save This Life, the situation has exposed a darker side of the pet microchipping business. While microchipping is meant to help pets find their way back to their families, the companies involved are still for-profit businesses. The question is: when these companies go under, what happens to the pet’s information and the services they promised?

As we’ve seen with other industries, businesses come and go, and sometimes people lose access to the services they’ve paid for. For pet owners, this could mean losing access to vital information that helps keep their pets safe. When a company fails, does anyone take responsibility for making sure the pets registered with them are still protected?

What Can You Do?

This situation is a wake-up call for anyone considering microchipping their pet. While microchipping is undoubtedly a useful and standard procedure, it’s important to be aware of the company behind it. As digital property rights become more complex, pet owners must consider the risks involved when a company is bought, sold, or shut down.

For now, pet owners using Save This Life are left in the lurch, unsure of whether their pets’ records are still accessible. In the future, it might be worth researching the longevity and reliability of the microchip company you choose to work with—just in case something goes wrong.

The Bigger Picture: What’s Next?

This case highlights an important lesson in today’s digital world: as we rely more on technology to protect the things we care about, we need to consider the long-term implications of that reliance. Whether it’s for pets, personal data, or digital products, the question remains: who owns and controls our digital property? And when companies fail, who is responsible for making sure we don’t lose access to what we’ve paid for?

The issue of digital property rights is far from simple, and as we’ve seen with pet microchips, it’s something that can have real consequences for pet owners. Stay informed, stay cautious, and make sure your furry friends are protected, no matter what happens to the company that microchips them.