We had the opportunity to interview Michael Hamilton, CEO and founder of Peeva, the startup behind the first and only universal pet microchip scanner.

Q: Can you start by telling us a bit about yourself and Peeva?
A: In order to understand our company you really have to understand the problem and our solution. When I was a little kid my dog was stolen and we never got him back. I love my dog now, Peeva, and I didn’t want anything like that to ever happen again. I was sad to learn that despite numerous technologies that have been developed, marketed, and sold to pet owners since I was a kid, nothing has worked. In this country, one third of all pets are reported missing in their lifetime, and nearly 80% are never found. They remain stolen, or put in shelters, where millions are killed every year. Microchips will work 100% of time if scanned and properly registered, but scanning for microchips isn’t the standard operating procedure for all vets and shelters. If it was, the missing pet problem could be greatly reduced.

Q: Could you briefly explain for our readers what a microchip does and how it works?
A: When a pet that was implanted with a microchip gets lost and winds up being taken to a shelter, or if it is stolen and taken to a vet, the vet/shelter is supposed to scan it for a microchip. Then, you’re supposed to get a phone call and get your pet back. The problem is that this is simply not happening. No universal scanner can read the full range of microchips encountered by vets and shelters when they receive missing pets, so pets are seldom recovered. Even if a scanner can read a microchip, that microchip code then needs to be searched by multiple registries until a match is found. That registry then needs to be called, and calls are often placed on hold. So it’s much easier for a veterinarian to ignore the issue all together and say ‘we’re in the business of treating pets, not in the business of policing puppies’. Simply put, microchips didn’t work.