Animal News

Generous groups offer free microchips for pets in Little Elm

Who's a good dog?

TCAP

Pet owners of Little Elm are in line to get something valuable for free: Texas Coalition for Animal Protection (TCAP), Friends of the Little Elm Animal Shelter (FLEAS), and Hula Hut of Little Elm are partnering on an event to provide free microchips for cats and dogs.

Microchips are a method to identify your dog that is tamper-proof. A pet microchip is the size of a grain of rice, and goes beneath your pet's skin.

If pets get lost, a vet can check the microchip with a scanner. Radio waves put out by the scanner activate the chip. The chip transmits the ID number to the scanner, which displays the number on the screen. The pet can be reunited with its owner.

"Microchips work!" proclaims one DFW-area shelter, citing the latest example, stating, "Today we picked up a pug running stray. We scanned for a microchip and contacted the owner. Much to our dismay, Chato has been stolen from his owners months ago! We were so happy to be able to reunite these two!!"

The cost for a microchip from a vet clinic averages about $45 to $60. TCAP generally offers them at a discount price of $30. But thanks to funding from FLEAS and Hula Hut, microchips will be offered to Little Elm area pets for free. This offer includes the lifetime registration of the microchip via HomeAgain’s National Pet Recovery Database.

According to microchip manufacturer HomeAgain, one in three pets will go missing during their lifetime. Without proper ID, 90 percent won't return home.

This initiative, which will take place September 2 at the Little Elm Animal Shelter, aims to keep pets and their people together by subsidizing the cost of this service. It's from The Texas Coalition for Animal Protection (TCAP), a nonprofit that provides low-cost spay/neuter, vaccine, and wellness services to underserved communities across North Texas.

In addition to free microchipping, TCAP will offer low-cost vaccinations and wellness services for cats and dogs during the event. That includes a rabies vaccine for only $5.

"We are thrilled to partner with Friends of the Little Elm Animal Shelter to bring this special event to the community," says TCAP executive director Stacey Schumacher. "At TCAP, our mission is to end pet overpopulation and euthanasia. This event directly correlates to our mission by ensuring lost pets can return home and aren't euthanized in overloaded shelters."

When: September 2 from 10 am-12 pm.

Where: Little Elm Animal Shelter, at 1605 Mark Tree Ln.

animals

Bird News

Reunion Tower in downtown Dallas initiates action to save birds from dying

Reunion Tower

Downtown Dallas skyline, all lit up.

Reunion Tower, the little ball on the Western edge of downtown Dallas, is famous for its sassy light shows illuminating the Dallas skyline. But in recent years, the building has followed a bird-friendly policy of dimming its lights, and that dimming is about to get underway.

From October 1 through October 21, Reunion Tower will observe the following lighting schedule:

Sundown to 11 pm: lower its lights
11 pm-6 am: go completely dark
6 am-sunrise back to dim

The building enacts these changes to protect birds that are migrating through Texas.

Dallas is on the path of the Central Migratory Flyway, which extends from the Northwest and heads diagonally southeast through Mexico.

Every fall and spring, nearly two billion birds travel through Texas. The bird migration is one of the largest on the planet, and takes place at night. Light attracts migrating birds, making them vulnerable to collisions with buildings and causing them to become disoriented and distracted.

Birds get pulled into urban areas, collide into buildings, and die. Volunteer surveys - in which people go out and count actual dead bodies - in cities such as Dallas, Austin, Houston, and Fort Worth, finds hundreds of dead birds every night. It adds up to nearly a billion birds killed in the U.S. each year.

Dallas-Fort Worth is the third most dangerous area in the U.S. for migratory birds to travel through; Chicago is No. 1, followed by Houston which is No. 2.

As this map from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows, Dallas and Houston are both massively lit, representing major obstacles to the success and survival of the birds' migration.

Lights Out Texas was initiated as a statewide effort in Spring 2020 to protect birds from light pollution by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and BirdCast, with the essential support of founding Texas partners Houston Audubon, the Dallas Zoo, and the Perot Museum of Nature and Science.

According to Audubon, the actual critical migration period through Dallas is September 6 through October 29. A glittery skyline is surely pretty, but downtown should just shut it down during those times.

nature downtown