U.S. Bill Includes RFID Provision for Pets

If APHIS requires the use of open standards, Cushing says, then "the adoption of tagging pets will grow exponentially among pet owners because [vendor competition around a single standard] will force prices to fall, and pet owners will feel secure that no matter where their pet might get lost, the nearest vet or shelter will be able to read its tag."

Cushing adds hat currently, having an ID tag injected into a cat or dog can cost pet owners up to $100, but that doing the same thing using a standards-based tagging system could lower that cost to as little as $15, because price competition will drive prices down. In some cases, this fee includes registering the pet into a national database. When it doesn't, the registration—which pet owners might have to do on their own, and which they often forget to do—can add another $10 or $15 to the total cost. Some vendors reportedly offer tagging services for as little as $15.

Banfield estimates there are 164 million pet cats and dogs in the United States, less than 5 percent of which are tagged. By contrast, he says, 25 percent of the dogs and cats in Great Britain are tagged. The Coalition for Reunited Pets and Families reports that 47 percent of lost dogs in the United Kingdom are returned to their owners through tag identification. However, of the estimated 8 million to 10 million pets that become lost each year in the United States, only a fraction are reunited with their owners through RFID tag ID.

The major RFID tag and reader vendors in the pet-tagging market have intitated a number of U.S. lawsuits against each other. Currently, only AVID and Digital Angel interrogators can decrypt the AVID tags. Digital Angel president Kevin McGrath says his firm developed an algorithm of its own, rather than using AVID's algorithm, to enable its reader to decrypt AVID tags. Crystal Import located in Birmingham, Ala., distributes ISO 11784 and 11785 pet ID tags and readers manufactured by DataMars, the Swiss company that created the tags Banfield had been implanting in pets. Crystal Import is suing AVID and Digital Angel, alleging that they are infringing antitrust laws. AVID, meanwhile, is suing DataMars for patent infringement.