What is a pet microchip registry?
A microchip registry is a database — its only job is to hold the link between a chip's unique ID number and the current owner's contact information, and to hand that information over when a vet, shelter, or animal-control officer scans a lost pet and looks the number up.
How does a registry connect a chip to an owner?
The chip itself only stores a fixed ID number, readable by any standard scanner regardless of who made the chip or who's doing the scanning.[1] A registry is where that number gets meaning: an owner creates an account with a registry and enters their contact information — and, usually, the pet's description — against that specific ID. From then on, anyone with access to look that number up can get in contact with the owner.
Are all registries connected to each other?
No, there is no single global database that every chip and every registry reports into[1] — the market is a patchwork of manufacturer-affiliated registries, independent registries, breed-club registries, and government or municipal ones, and a chip is only findable through whichever registry it happens to be registered with.
What is the AAHA Universal Microchip Lookup Tool?
Because no single database contains every microchip registration, the American Animal Hospital Association built a free lookup tool that does the next best thing: given a chip's ID number, it searches across all of the participating registries and reports back which one (or ones) has a record for that chip.[2] It doesn't store owner data itself — it's a directory that points a vet or shelter to the right registry to contact.
It is the first step that animal professionals take when they scan a found pet. If they didn't use the tool, then they would either have to search every registry website individually, or they run the risk of not finding the registered owner because they didn't search the right registry website.
Is a registry the same as the microchip manufacturer?
Not necessarily. Some manufacturers run their own affiliated registry — but an owner is free to register the chip with an independent registry instead, and many do. The manufacturer made the physical chip which provides the unique microchip ID number; the registry is whoever is holding the lookup data today, and those can be, and often are, different companies.
Sources
- Microchipping: FAQs for pet owners American Veterinary Medical Association
- Universal Pet Microchip Lookup Tool American Animal Hospital Association