Comments on: Microchip Implants Linked To Animal Tumors In Research Animals

By: Mollie

Mollie — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:30:44 +0000

I was very iffy getting my cat chipped…..now i dont know what to do because my state requires it to be able to take her to the vet…what should i do???
any ideas?…email me at livelong6@live.com! Please help!!!!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 01:04:51 +0000

As an animal control officer I must say that I feel that the benefit far outweighs the risk. We see animals come into the shelter every day that are never reunited with their owners. I would be more concerned about applying the systemic flea and tick controls in regards to tumors. Think about it logically please, and don’t discount chipping your animal.

By: tld

tld — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 07:58:51 +0000

i agree with joanne. had my cat chipped and he died of cancer. feel i killed him trying to protect him. my vet should have warned me of the risk associated with the microchip. i would urge anyone to consider a collar with i.d., vs. a chip. it’s hard to accept that if i didn’t have my big beautiful cat chipped he’d still be here. he wasn’t right shortly after, and now as further proof his sister who was also chipped is getting inflammation around implant site and not acting at all like she was before the implant. if this saves even one cherished pet for someone out there and spares them the agony of losing their pet, then it was well worth my time and being at the keyboard researching all this stuff at 3 a.m. instead of sleeping. pity is i didn’t see this site or ones similar to it brfore the microchip of my cat. bigger pity is my vet never even warned me of such a possibility. and i am very sure he is aware of it, but money is more important than our beloved pets. think twice and then tell your vet “no thanks”

By: Kym

Kym — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 00:45:51 +0000

I have two dogs, both rescues, and both chipped. One was to be put down the following day , and thanks to the fact that i got him chipped and brought him home, his life has so far been extended by 4 happy years.

The other was stolen last year from our house, and again, thanks to the chip, he was returned to me 6 months later, after turning up as a stray at the other end of the country. Without that chip, i would NEVER have seen him again.

So i apologise to anyone who disagrees, but in my view, even if these chips do in some cases lead to cancer down the line, is it worth risking the potential loss of life or the trauma caused by NOT getting the chip?

Two other points I’d like to make: One is that our old dog, never microchipped, died from cancer in his spine & neck at the age of 12. The other is, i read in one of those “shock scientific report findings” stories you read in the papers, that eating too much lettuce can give you cancer…

As G. Wright said just there, “Given enough time, the mortality rate for everyone is 100%”

Pretty much every move we make leads us closer to the end of our time here, and i would rather take my chances and give my dogs 10 or 15 years of love and life maybe ended eventually by cancer, than an untimely end in a dog pound somewhere.

Think on that.

Although I’d just like to mention I don’t eat lettuce anymore…It’s just not worth the risk…

By: G.Wright

G.Wright — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 04:39:15 +0000

I can offer one thing I know to be true. I have raised HUNDREDS of mice in my lifetime. They don’t live very long. Rodents have an astounding cancer rate. Something on the order of 50%. Seriously. Those lab mice could have gotten cancer from an EMPTY needle stick alone. Really, the information was presented badly. What is important is the difference in cancer rates between the control group and the chipped test group. Anyone see that information here? That right because it wasn’t. In those studies there WAS no control group… I have seen studys where mice were actually given radiactive radon gas, and the cancer rates dropped in the test groups of mice compare to the control group. You can present a study in any way you want, to present any result you want, just by presenting the numbers in a certain way. On a final note, really, if a dog dies of cancer at 27 years old, did he really die of cancer? It sounds to me like old age? Given enough time, the mortality rate for everyone is 100%. So the question is, if these chips did cause an increased cancer rate above the control group, then how many years of life were lost? Because, if chipping your dog takes 7 days off the end of his life, for all the benefits it could offer you, isn’t it worth it?

By: Joanne

Joanne — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 17:08:32 +0000

I just lost my 10 1/2 year old Australina Shepherd to mangiosarcomea. The vet thought he may have had a brain tumor because he had two seizures the day before we put him down. I had Murphy microchipped when he was a puppy. Now I’m wondering if I killed my dog! All of your arguments are valid, both pro and con. Howevere, I believe money talks, so I can tell you that I will most likely not have another dog chipped until I am satisfied that it is safe. The thought of a foriegn object in the body doesn’t sit well with me. Why did I have Murphy chipped? Because it was recommended by my vet. Did he have my dogs’ and my best interests at heart? Who knows? I know he likes to make money. That is why he’s a vet. I’m not saying all vets are only in it for the money, but I later found out that my vet didn’t even LIKE dogs, unless they were the size of a cat. Murphy should have lived at least another two years, but now he’s gone. It all happened so quickly! I will never take the chance that this could happen again and that I was responsible for it. Not until it can be proven to be safe for my dogs.

By: JJ in IL

JJ in IL — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 04:02:27 +0000

Need info on a holistic vet near chicago, IL that will remove this chip from my dog. Anyone care to offer assistance? Thx!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 18:07:45 +0000

TINFOIL ANYONE???
JESS: “Clearly, microchipping could threaten [farmers].
So they have concocted a mountain of lies, rumours, fake studies, paid-off illegitimate â€œexpertsâ€ fake statistics and more to try to create a â€œmicrochips cause cancerâ€ fear.
Itâ€™s pretty much like most other propaganda campaigns. The people involved are libertarian type radicals, and the tactics used are unscientific and outrageous.

OR YOU CAN TAKE YOUR CHANCES WITH “RESEARCH” PROPRAGATED BY NON-LIBERTARIAN NON RADICALS [CAVEAT EMPTOR: NON-LITERATE]

In 1998, a Connecticut study including 177 mice reported cancer incidence to be slightly higher than 10 percent of research animals implanted with microchips.

A 2006 study done in France showed tumors in 4.1 percent of 1,260 microchipped mice.

In 1997, a study in Germany reported cancers in 1 percent of 4,279 mice. The researchers wrote that the tumors â€œare clearly due to the implanted microchips.â€

For some cancer specialists, seeing these results from lab studies is alarming.

â€œThereâ€™s no way in the world, having read this information, that I would have one of those chips implanted in my skin, or in one of my family members,â€ said Dr. Robert Benezra, head of the Cancer Biology Genetics Program at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 17:57:00 +0000

ON link between RFID chips and cancer -http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/ brief excerpts: VeriChip told the Associated Press that it had not been aware of any previous studies linking RFID chips to cancer in animals, although Katherine Albrecht of Spychips.org had little trouble unearthing three such studies at the Harvard medical library. When the AP asked if the FDA had considered these or other studies before it approved the use of implanatable chips, the agency declined repeated requests to specify what studies it had reviewed for its decision.

The AP also uncovered an important connection between VeriChip and former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, whose agency oversaw the FDA while it was considering the VeriChip for approval.

Two weeks after the deviceâ€™s approval took effect on Jan. 10, 2005, Thompson left his Cabinet post, and within five months was a board member of VeriChip Corp. and Applied Digital Solutions. He was compensated in cash and stock options.

By: patty l. dunnington

patty l. dunnington — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 08:51:58 +0000

97068

My Dog nellie has tumors in her hind leg and another one on her stomach., the chip was implanted now 5 yrs ago., at that time she had NO lumps. I wish I’d known better.

patty dunnington oregon

By: Jillian

Jillian — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 09:21:22 +0000

That apparently wasn’t the full article–I’ve seen longer versions that warn to take these reports with a grain of salt. From the article above: “Caveats accompanied the findings. “Blind leaps from the detection of tumors to the prediction of human health risk should be avoided,” one study cautioned. Also, because none of the studies had a control group of animals that did not get chips, the normal rate of tumors cannot be determined and compared to the rate with chips implanted.”

Without a control, we have no idea whether the percent of rats or mice that would get cancer from the insertion of the needle alone is the same as those who actually get the injection–some lines of rats and mice are prone to cancer and will get it without anything being done to them in the first place. Ultimately, it’s about calculating whether the benefits of the microchip outweigh the risks. Both my indoor-only cats are microchipped and wear collars with ID. I don’t want to take any chances of them getting out and getting lost without having ways they can be reunited with me.

By: JJ in IL

JJ in IL — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 04:21:18 +0000

Lynn my dog developed a nerve sheath tumor at injection site for rabies shot (my previous girl) with the total cost at $12,000.00 probably a lil more but quit counting after that figure. So now with current dog will have titre tests as she has had a round of two shots in her short life and well know the future risk assessment of further rabies shots and she has a chip too so thats why in a previous post had stated people would think twice about adopting from a shelter that chips animals when they might not want to deal with the ‘risk’ that a chip could pose. There are shelters that do not chip and my next dog will come from one of those. We deal with enough with all the sad, bad news from the pet food but now this on top of all that is enough to make all of us a lil edgy.

By: Lynn

Lynn — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 03:45:50 +0000

I don’t know about a second case [was there a second case?], but I do know about the case of the Leon, the French Bulldog [whose sarcoma was histologically and immunologically examined by two major veterinary labs and was determined to be very similar to the type of post-injection fibrosarcoma seen in mice and rats]. But it was never conclusively determined that Leon’s microchip caused the cancer since he had had Rabies shots in the same location.

I don’t know about this business regarding the transponders causing the cancer in mice or rats. As I understand it there were never any control groups WITHOUT microchips. It is well known that many mice and rats do in fact develop sarcomas after injections [of anything].

It’s called risk assessment. You have to decide what the odds are. But make sure you’ve got all the facts first.

By: E. Hamilton

E. Hamilton — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 02:35:36 +0000

As an “easily led” reader, just let me say all this info has me soo confused!
To chip or not to chip, that is the question, whether to suffer the slings and arrows…

By: Lynn

Lynn — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 01:58:15 +0000

To JJ in IL:

I don’t know that anyone here is on a high perch or throwing stones. I am at a loss as to how you inferred this.

We are all trying to provide credible or empirical information so that your decision will be an informed one. Like you, we love our pets.

I never, in all my years of having multiple dogs lost a dog. EXCEPT when my home was broken into and robbed. I NEVER would have expected that to happen. But it did. And I’m sure if you were to review stats on home invasion vs. sarcomas from various injections, you would find that the odds are that your home is more likely to be broken into than your pet will develop injection site sarcoma.