Free drive-thru pet microchip, rabies vaccination clinic set for March 5

Is your pet needing their rabies vaccination or a microchip? Then you're in luck!

Austin Animal Center (AAC) and Austin City Council member Sabino "Pio" Renteria (District 3) are partnering up to host a free drive-thru microchip and rabies vaccination clinic this Saturday for all City of Austin and Travis County residents.

The drive-thru event will be held at Austin Animal Center at 7201 Levander Loop from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, March 5. Dogs must be on leashes and cats must be in carriers.

"Microchips are essential to getting pets reunited with their families," says Mark Sloat, Field Services Manager for AAC. "We have thousands of dogs getting picked up and brought to the shelter by community members, and the majority aren’t finding their way back home. We know from our Animal Protection Officers’ work that most pets are picked up really close to home, so in addition to educating the community we’re really pushing microchipping."

Microchips are small electronic chips about the size of a grain of rice that are inserted under the skin on dogs and cats, says AAC. They serve as a permanent form of identification and places like animal shelters, veterinary clinics, and pet stores have scanners that read the unique number which can then be used to search microchip registries for owner information.

AAC says its outreach staff are working with members of City Council to host microchip clinics in each of their districts to increase reclaim rates. 

"Thanks to microchipping, District 3 has one of the highest lost pet return rates in the whole city," a representative from Councilmember Renteria’s office said. "A big part of getting to that place was due to the efforts of the folks at the Austin Animal Center. By getting out in the community to educate folks, and especially through free microchipping clinics like the one this weekend, we were able to keep our pets safe and happy."

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