Reprinted in its entirety with permission.

To: National Desk

Contact: Dr. Dan Knox of Avid Identification Systems, Inc., 314-660-2843 / 800.336.2843 ext.1305

NORCO, Calif., April 5 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Humane Society of the United States and animal care and control organizations on March 25, 2004 cautioned pet owners that the nation's animal shelters may not have scanning devices that can read or detect the foreign pet identification microchip being sold by approximately 440 veterinary clinics housed in one of the nation's largest pet product retailers.

"All pets should have some form of identification on them..." said Martha Armstrong, Humane Society of the United States senior vice president for Companion Animals and Equine Protection.” Collars and ID tags can become lost where microchips offer a permanent and additional means of identification. But we are concerned that pet owners could have a false sense of security."

The warning comes as a European company has entered the microchip market and is selling foreign microchips in approximately 440 veterinary clinics housed in one of the nation's largest pet product retailers. Yet the company has not provided the end-users such as many of the nation's shelters, humane societies and veterinary hospitals with compatible effective scanners needed to read all the US microchips currently in pets. As a result, the animal protection groups recommend that pet owners thinking about getting their pets micro-chipped contact both the chip manufacturer and their local shelter to make certain that compatible 125 kHz scanners are present in their community.

Using the foreign microchip provided by the Banfield Pet Hospital located in Petsmart stores, can be viewed as a deviation of the accepted standard of care. In fact, AVID and Home Again 125 kHz microchips are considered the standard of care in the U.S. and have been placed in over 8 million pets across the United States, resulting in 8,000 lost pets being returned to their families each week. "There are approximately 70,000 highly accurate scanners in place and a system that provides results. With 8,000 lost pets being returned to their families each week, the U.S. has the best system in the world." says Dr. Hannis L. Stoddard III, founder and president of Avid.

The incompatibility between scanners and microchips means some micro-chipped animals entering shelters may be treated as unidentified and destroyed or not returned to their family. "Putting lives of our pets at risk is totally unacceptable," said Dr. Hannis L. Stoddard III, "Especially when compatible chips could have been offered," and added, "To protect our pets, we were left with no alternative other than to file a patent infringement suit against a Canadian pet insurance company Pethealth and Allflex, who manufactures their incompatible microchip products."

"A patent is a government award recognizing a unique advancement in technology," said Peter Troesch, Vice President of Avid, "The advancement is considered so significant that the U.S. government grants the patent owner the exclusive rights to make, use and sell the invention for a number of years." Patents have proven to promote advancements that benefit our society, culture and economy.

The foreign microchip and the scanners are not being received well by the veterinary community. "What were they thinking?" said Lauren Smith of Sorrento Animal Hospital. Like many other veterinarians, she says the U.S. system worked just fine. As for the foreign one, "It's not an intelligent decision, and it's alienating to veterinarians."

"Every person who microchips their pet has a good faith belief that the animals will get home. Unfortunately that is not true today. It is a tragedy that ISO microchipped animals will languish or die in shelters or lay untreated in emergency veterinary clinics because their chip are not widely readable." says Phil Olson, Executive Director for the Humane Society for Southwest Washington.

"This is a very serious and life threatening situation when a Humane Society receives an animal and they are not able to detect that the animal has an implanted microchip. The micro-chip was designed to be an added insurance policy for your lost pet to be returned safely home. With the use of this incompatible technology, and without scanners in widespread use that can read all three chips accurately, thoroughly and precisely, the new ISO chip is a detriment. This is a serious matter that can affect the welfare of animals. Animal care and control agencies have worked long and hard to perfect and standardize the microchip system in use today...this will set us back 8 years." said Rick Collord, Former Chairman, Society of Animal Welfare Administrators, Microchip Committee.

Contact: Dr. Dan Knox, Avid Identification Systems, Inc., 3179 Hamner Ave., Norco, CA 92860. Phone: 314-660-2843 or 800- 336-2843 ext. 1305

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