 |
||
|
Court halts
nationwide sale of ISO FDX-B chips November
4, 2004 San Diego, California-- The San Diego Superior Court
yesterday issued a preliminary injunction blocking Medical Management
Interational, dba Banfield, ThePet Hospital, from selling or advertising
ISO FDX-B microchips for pet ID. Banfield Pet Hospitals are located
in PETsMART stores throughout the United States. If Banfield wants to resume selling or promoting its RecoveryChip,
its written promotional materials and advertisements must first be submitted
to the court, in order to ensure that they disclose that "134.2
kHz electronic identification tags . . . cannot be read by the vast
majority of scanners in U.S. shelters." Judge William C. Pate noted
that "the potential for serious, irreparable harm warrants the
issuance of a mandatory preliminary injunction . . . specifically the
increased potential for pets to be euthanized while their owners believe
them to be safe." The order is the result of a consumer protection lawsuit filed in May
2004, after Banfield's distribution of its chips triggered a strong
response by the pet shelter community. Pet microchipping systems use a scanner (or reader) to read a small
microchip that is injected under the skin of a pet. The 134.2 kHz microchip,
used in several foreign countries, cannot be read by scanners used by
most American veterinarians and shelters. The court also ordered Banfield "to notify all purchasers of its
RecoveryChip, or any other 134.2 kHz electronic identification tags
it has sold, as well as all veterinarians to whom it has recommended
these products" of the chip's limitations. The injunction requires Banfield's notification to be approved by the
Court, and to state that only certain, specifically listed shelters
are equipped with scanners that can read Banfield's chip. The notification
also must disclose that the mere fact that shelters have such scanners
"does not guarantee that the shelters will actually use those scanners
on lost pets." Finally the notification must further disclose "that
the majority of shelters presently use a scanner that will not detect
or read [Banfield's] implanted chip." "Judge Pate's order may very well save pet's lives," said
Hannis L. Stoddard III, DVM and president of AVID, one of the parties
that brought the lawsuit. AVID manufactures Friend Chips, a microchip
pet ID tag that has been used successfully throughout the country to
reunite pets with their families for years. "Today's decision . . . is an important step in stopping and remedying
an advertising campaign that the court recognized was likely to deceive
consumers and create a risk of unnecessarily euthanized pets,"
states Daniel Pascucci of Fish & Richardson, counsel for AVID and
veterinarian Robert Stonebreaker, D.V.M., who filed the consumer protection
lawsuit against Banfield. For further information, please contact: For more info about AVID, visit www.avidid.com For information
and questions please contact: Info@EIDLtd.com
|
