The County Pet Scan Station Transcript
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello and welcome to The County where we examine issues important to Baltimore County, Maryland. Did you know there's a new free resource to help reunite lost pets with their owners as quickly as possible? My name is Abby Isaacs, and I'm joined by Baltimore County Animal Services, Deputy Chief Kayla  Frankowski to dive into the new community scan stations. Thanks for joining me, Kayla.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Thanks for having me, Abby.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
So, Kayla, first just tell me what these scan stations are.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Yeah, so in February of this year, we launched a new PET scan station, in various locations around the county. So, the general idea is residents who find a lost pet can visit any one of the scan stations. Um, they can get their pet that they found scanned for a microchip. It's super simple. If they bring their own pet to the scan station, they can actually scan their pet for a microchip as well. See what the microchip number is, make sure it's registered. It'll, it'll ultimately, it'll help get more animals back to their homes, to their owners without them having to come to the shelter. Right now, nationwide, we're facing a serious crisis in the animal shelter world. All shelters are seriously overpopulated with dogs and with cats. So it's this kind of the county's initiative to help get pets back with owners before having to come to the shelter.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Just explain to me exactly how they work when someone walks up onto one of these scan stations. Sure.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
So as soon as you walk up, it's fairly small box. It's got a very little laminated piece of paper. It's a very simple design. You open the box, take the microchip scanner out. It's small, it's handheld. You'll press the red button in the center if the pet's on a leash or in a carrier, however you get it there. The cord's on the actual scanners are really long, so sometimes you can even get, leave the pet in your car, scan it in your car. The actual scanner just has one red button. It's, it's not confusing. You can't mistake it for anything else. You press that red button and while you're pressing the red button, you point the top of the scanner down towards the pet. Um, right in between the shoulder blades all the way down the back. You'll scan it while holding that red button.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
If you don't catch anything there. If it doesn't beep, say the animal has a microchip, you'll go down the side of the body, down the legs. Sometimes microchips can migrate depending on when the pet got them. So, it's a fairly simple, easy piece of equipment to use. If it does beep and say that, you know, the pet has a microchip, it'll be a 12 or 15 digit number, you'll copy down that number. Sometimes the easiest thing to do if you have your cell phone on, you take a, you know, quick picture of the actual scanner. It stays on the scanner for about 30 or 45 seconds if you need to write it down. And then there's directions on the actual box as well that leads you to either the Baltimore County website, which links the pet microchip lookup, or you can go right to the pet microchip lookup website, which is on the flyer as well.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Uh, you get on the website, look it up, it'll give you a list of microchip registries that the pets microchip could be registered with or is registered with. It gives you all of the phone numbers to those registries. So you can call them and start making found pet reports with those companies and see if they actually have the owner's information on file. Most of the pet microchip companies will actually just contact the owner right from there and, you know, kind of initiate that returning the pet to its owner process. Um, put you in contact with them, them in contact with you in hopes to ultimately keep 'em outta the shelter.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
So, one of the most integral parts about all of this is making sure that  your pet's microchipped. Yes. Right? Because these skin stations don't work if the pet that you found isn't microchipped. So, talk to me about what microchipping is and the services that Baltimore County Animal Services offers.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Pet microchipping is a quick and safe procedure that provides a permanent form of identification as a part of national best practice. Every dog and cat adopted from Baltimore County Animal Services is microchipped. So, it's a fairly simple non-invasive process. It is essentially a shot almost. It's very much like a shot. It's a little bit of a larger gauge needle. Um, the microchips about the size of a grain of rice, so very small. It goes right in between the shoulder blades. It is quick. It takes maybe 30 seconds to insert a microchip. And it is, like I said, non-invasive. So it really doesn't hurt the pet. It's essentially like getting a rabies vaccine, getting a December vaccine. It's very quick and it can absolutely get your pet back to you if they ever get lost without them having to come to the shelter or you know, somebody keeping them.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Another really important part of the microchip is registering the microchip. So, Abby, like you said, you can get them here at Baltimore County Animal Services. You can call us and make an appointment for a microchip or you can come to any of our rabies clinics. We offer microchips at our rabies clinics during the spring and the fall. 
Another really, really important part of this is going to be registering those microchips. If you do not register them after you get them implanted in the pet, they are, they go back to nobody. They go back to the person or the company who implanted them, not necessarily the owner of the pet. So if you're getting your pet microchipped, either with us or with anybody else, please make sure to follow those directions that they give you. It is super easy. You go on the company's website, you type in your information. Most of the companies are free to register with. Um, and that kind of holds your information on that chip so we can always get the animal back to you.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Let's talk about where these five scan stations are located and why Baltimore County Animal Services picked those locations.

Speaker 2 (06:05):
Yep. So, we have five scan stations throughout the community right now. If these all go well, we hope to expand. They're right now located in our five highest intake areas around Baltimore County. So the five areas where we're seeing the most animals come in from. So, we have Bark Park in Reisterstown, Northeast Regional Recreation Center in Parkville, Stembridge Community Center in Essex, Dundalk Bay Neuter Center in Dundalk and Banneker Community Center in Catonsville. 

Like we said, we hope to start out with these to kind of gauge how well they're working, how often they're being used, if they're getting pets returned to home rather than getting to the shelter. And from there we hope to expand to quite a few other accessible areas in the county.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
So, Baltimore County is the first jurisdiction in Maryland to launch these scan stations and one of the first regionally and really nationwide. So, we've been getting a lot of feedback about these scan stations, and one question we do get often is how much did they cost and what is really the cost benefit that we see of having these scan stations out in the community?
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Yeah, absolutely. So, animal shelters all over the nation right now. Like I said before, in absolute crisis. We are hoping to offer this as a tool for citizens to use, um, to get the pets back home rather than coming to the shelter. I know I keep harping on that, but it is a really serious issue right now. And a lot of the time the community wants to be involved. They want to do stuff, they want to know how they can help us. Um, and this is one of those things that it was, it was easy to put out, it was easy to get directions for, it's easy for them to do and they can really, really help, um, keep these pets outta the shelter. And in homes. These stations were ultimately very low cost and we think we'll end up paying for themselves. Each station was under $500.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
And the average cost of a stray coming into our facility from the first day to the end of the stray hold, which is about three days, is on average a hundred dollars a day, $300 a animal just for those first three days. And that's if they're healthy, they don't have any other further medical concerns, anything like that. So if it gets just a few animals home, they pay for themselves. And if it gets more animals home, it's ultimately gonna help us. The citizens, the owners, nobody has to come up here and get their pets. We're not super local. We're all the way up here in Baldwin, which it's a fantastic facility, but it is a far drive if you're coming from Catonsville or Dundalk. So if they can get reunited in the communities where they got lost from, it prevents the pet owners from having to come all the way up here to get them.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Another question that we've gotten pretty frequently is how are these scan stations being monitored and how are the uses being tracked?
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Yep. So, we have them on a monthly, um, kind of rotating schedule right now. We go out, check the batteries, check and make sure they're working on each scan station. There is a QR code that will bring you to our website, which also has our email address on it. The email address is also on the scan stations, so if you get there and it's not working, um, it's lost, stolen, broken, anything like that, you can absolutely report it to us. But we've been checking them about once a month since February. Um, the, the scan stations in general have been out since about October. Um, they've made it through the rain, snow, cold weather. We're really hoping they do well just as well through summer. But we haven't had any issues with the weather. Um, with the batteries have been good. So monitoring 'em, we'll adjust that as needed. If they start getting used a lot, they probably need to change the batteries more, but right now it is such a simple design that really those battery checks and making sure everything is still functioning is, is all we have to keep up on, which has been nice. Are
Speaker 1 (10:05):
You concerned about vandalism?
Speaker 2 (10:08):
You know, like I said, they've been out for quite a while, since October, so we're hoping that, you know, if if somebody was going to say steal them, that that would've potentially already happened. They've been out in the communities for a while, but they're not worth anything other than their intended use. So unless you have a lot of pets to scan or, you know, you're, you're in a shelter setting there, the only thing it's gonna do for you is allow you to get that pet's microchip number and contact the microchip company. That's it, it's not gonna give you any more information. Having that actual device doesn't give you any more information than just that 15 digit microchip number. So, we're hoping people will leave them where they're at so that the whole community can enjoy 'em. A few of our locations actually have the surveillance cameras as well. So, we hope that that is, you know, kind of a deterrent from anybody wanting to vandalize them, steal them, anything of that nature. Um, but for the most part, anybody coming looking to use them has the general idea of they're not good for anything else besides that microchip scanning, because
Speaker 1 (11:19):
This is such an innovative idea and we really are the first ones to implement this at this scale in this region. What has the response been like from animal advocates in Maryland and really nationwide?
Speaker 2 (11:31):
It has been awesome. I feel like within an hour of putting out the press release, uh, back in February, people were reaching out from Georgia, California. We had North Carolina, New York, um, I think Michigan, there's been a lot of other, um, you know, county agencies, county shelters, um, in different states. There has been some nonprofit shelters and there has been just general parks and recs people, people who aren't necessarily completely tied to the animal welfare community, but want to make sure that any lost pets in their community are getting home rather than maybe going to the local shelter. So the response from everyone in general has been really awesome. Um, you know, the big, one of the big questions is, is the cost and kind of how to do it. And each one of these groups that we talk to, um, because the, the idea is so general and simple, they always come out of it very surprised. Like, oh, it is, it's just a, a waterproof box with a tether and a microchip scanner and that's it. That is all it is. And hopefully with just those three things, we can get a lot of pets' home rather than into the shelters.

Speaker 1 (12:50):
I mean, you worked on this for over a year. Yeah. You really pushed this program forward. So now seeing it come to fruition, seeing how popular it is. Yeah. How does it make you feel?
Speaker 2 (13:00):
It is awesome. It's awesome. And I think I, what I'm really hoping for is that a lot of other people take it and run with it. It is such a simple idea. I mean, the supplies you can get off Amazon and it's a resource for the community and a resource for the pets. And ultimately, whether it's our shelter or anybody else's, if the animal is not coming into a shelter, that's a win. Because if we're full and all the other local shelters are full, it's harder to help each other. It's harder to help the community. 'cause we're so worried about all the pets in our care. So if anybody else takes this and runs with it, even if they're not, you know, uh, shelter or animal rescue group, getting scanners out into the community is ultimately gonna help us all.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Well, Kayla, thank you so much for helping implement this program, and thank you for joining us today. Baltimore County Animal Services is located at 1 3 8 0 0 Manor Road in Baldwin. They are open for adoptions noon to 5:00 PM Tuesday through Sunday, and they also offer other services, including spay and neuter appointments, rabies clinics, and microchipping. Thanks for listening to this episode of the County. The episode was produced with help from the Baltimore County Public Library Media Services. Tune in next time.







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