Milwaukee Fire Department gets microchip readers to ID lost pets

Lost pets in Milwaukee may find their way back home a little bit quicker, thanks to work from the Milwaukee Fire Department and the Milwaukee Area Domestic Animal Control Commission’s nonprofit organization.

A $6,000 grant from Friends of MADACC, the nonprofit that supports MADACC through donations and volunteers, allowed the fire department to buy microchip scanners for all 31 of the city’s fire stations.

“When you talk to a dog owner or a cat owner, this is not a pet. This is a family member. So let’s keep those families together,” Milwaukee Fire Department Chief Aaron Lipski said at a news conference Wednesday, Feb. 18.

For the first time, Milwaukee fire stations will be able to check a pet for a microchip and contact information for the pet’s owner without having to wait for MADACC to get to the scene, Lipski said. People who find lost dogs and cats in the city can bring the animals to their nearest fire station for help to reunite them with their owner.

Scanning a pet with the handheld devices takes just a second, Milwaukee Fire Department Community Relations Director Carlos Velázquez Sánchez demonstrated at the news conference.

Assisting him in the demonstrations were two adoptable MADACC dogs: Turbo, a French bulldog, and Deebo, a pitbull mix.

Friends of MADACC raised the funds for the project entirely through donations, organization president Amila Rizvic said. A few years ago, the nonprofit organization worked on a similar project with the Milwaukee Police Department, so equipping the fire department with the technology was the natural next stop, Rizvic said.

For anyone whose pets aren’t microchipped, MADACC offers $30 microchip services by appointment. However, Friends of MADACC has opportunities for free microchipping services at the organization’s Community Pet Clinics, aimed to help people who can’t afford certain pet care services, Rizvic said.

“The most important part is we keep the pets in their homes and actually out of the shelter system,” she said.

Lipski encouraged people to consider donating to Friends of MADACC for future projects to help animals in the city.

“They took very good care,” Lipski said. “We see them all the time when we find animals around fires and nobody’s around. They do just great work for us.”

Contact Kelli Arseneau at (920) 213-3721 or karseneau@gannett.com. Follow her on X at @ArseneauKelli.