Who really started selling equine microchips to the public first?

Who really started selling equine microchips to the public first?

10 November 2014

MicrodhipedpalominoDSCN7969.jpgTrivia Question: Who was the first company to offer microchip kits to the public online and at expositions?

Answer: Stolen Horse International, Inc.

Did you know that Stolen Horse International was the first to start making microchips kits for horse owners?

The first kits were sold in a public place at the Equine Affaire in our booth after Debi Metcalfe did a seminar.

The kits were already being sold on our website as a fundraiser for the organization. To this day they remain an ongoing fundraiser. When you purchase a chip from our store you help make another recovery possible.

Why did we come up with the idea?

We did this because there were few vets that would microchip horses at that time. We were constantly hearing from horse owners that they could not get the microchips from their vets.

We knew many horse owners did their own shots so we put the two together!

Do you have to put your own chips in once you get the kit? Of course not. You can get the chip kits and still have your vet put them in for you. You do need to educate yourself to make sure you know where and how they are inserted into the horse. Directions are included in each of our kits.

magazinesDSCN7894.jpgWhat makes Stolen Horse International different from any other?

If you have been on Facebook you may have seen some of the other for profit companies who have followed our lead and are selling products to the public.  

What makes us different from the rest of the companies? List below are just a few key points.

  1. Our 16 years of experience behind our claims. There is now substitute for experience.

  2. We really do have the first ID registry for microchips and all other equine ID, the NetPosse Identification Program, (NIP).

  3. We really do work with victims and have since 1997. 

  4. We were the first to send out alerts in the horse industry back in 1997 when the horse who is the inspiration to our nonprofit organization, Idaho, was stolen from the Metcalfe family. 

Now for the rest of the story.....

The microchip company executives that Harold and Debi Metcalfe talked with thought microchipping your own horse was a silly idea and were sure horse owners would not microchip their own horses. At that time they only sold to veterinarians who sold them to the public.

They were confident that horse owners would rely only on their vets. They did agree there were not enough vets who had picked up the practice of microchipping horses and that it was a much needed service to the horse community.

On December 31, 2002, we made a deal with the microchip company distributers while at a dinner meeting with them in Nashville, Tennessee for our first microchips and started selling them as a fundraiser immediately.

After the distributor saw how quickly our program became successful, they copied our lead and changed their website to sell to the public. 

Now you know the rest of the story. It was Stolen Horse International that changed the microchip industry and microchip companies and vendors online today followed our lead. It was not the other way around.

This is just one more way that Stolen Horse International has made a huge difference in the world today.

Guess it was not such a silly idea after all.


 If you need information or need a microchip, please start with the nonprofit organization that paved the way for others to follow with our microchip your own horse microchip.

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Stolen Horse International provides news and other resources for free on this website. As a charitable organization we survive on the kindness of people like you. Please consider donating to help fund the organization or purchasing a NetPosse ID for your horse, dog or cat to help protect your beloved animals!
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Debi Metcalfe

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