TENAFLY, N.J.—While the borough currently builds its first-ever $50,000 dog park at the formerly shuttered Tenafly Swim Club site, local four-legged companions need not worry about losing their way thanks to a special donation received by Tenafly’s Police Department.
A new scanning device that will read microchips implanted in wayward furry friends and help identify owners—the QuickScan 650 microchip scanner—was donated to local police by resident Richard Reynolds, a pet owner and well-known international dog show judge.
“The Tenafly Police Department would like to recognize and thank Richard Reynolds for donating a brand new microchip scanner to the department,” said Police Chief Robert Chamberlain. The chief said Reynolds wanted to provide the department with an additional method to quickly identify lost pets.
Chamberlain said local police frequently receive calls about lost or missing pets roaming in the borough. He said pets registered locally must have a registration tag, which officers rely on to identify the owners and return the lost animals.
However, the chief said, sometimes an animal does not have a tag, or the animal has pulled out of its harness or collar. In those cases, he said, officers bring the pets back to headquarters and place them into a kennel in hopes an owner will call to claim them.
“Officers in the department are all pet lovers and they do their best to delay sending the pet to the county animal shelter,” Chamberlain told Northern Valley Press. He said the new microchip reader will help the department make quicker identifications for animals that have a microchip implanted.
“This will reduce the amount of time pets spend at the station, and reduce the number of pets that are sent to the animal shelter,” said Chamberlain.
Photo courtesy Tenafly PD