LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — A growing number of neighborhood microchip scanning stations are popping up across Louisville and Southern Indiana to help lost pets get home faster and ease pressure on local shelters.

The stations allow people who find a lost pet to scan the animal for a microchip and retrieve the pet’s microchip ID number.

It’s a fear many pet owners share — a dog or cat running away. Microchips are one of the main tools used to reunite lost pets with their owners.

"If they are chipped there’s a really good chance that you can find the owner," Patti Echsner said.

Usually, microchip scanners are found at veterinary offices or animal shelters. But pets often go missing during nights and weekends, when many of those places are closed.

Echsner said stray animals frequently show up in her neighborhood.

"It's usually on the weekend or at night and it's hard to catch them but if you do we thought this would be very convenient for our neighbors," Echsner said.

After hearing about the microchip boxes, Echsner and her partner installed one outside their home off Barrett Avenue last week.

"You can measure from tiny dogs to big dogs," Echsner said. "They usually look at the back of the neck or shoulders to see if the dog is chipped."

In April alone, hundreds of stray animals were taken to Louisville Metro Animal Services. Last year, Metro Council passed an ordinance requiring all pets to be microchipped to help prevent overcrowding at shelters and reunite animals with their owners.

Once someone gets the microchip ID number, they can search a microchip database to find the owner’s contact information.

Right now, there are 3 neighborhood scanning stations in Louisville and 10 in Southern Indiana. Some are outside homes, while others are outside local businesses.

The effort is community-led. A Facebook group called Louisville & Southern Indiana Microchip Scanner Network helps people learn where to buy supplies and how to set up a station. Jinn Bug launched the initiative in southern Indiana. She said, "I'm thrilled to see this spreading and folks joining the group to get mentorship, support, and resources as well as spreading the word of new stations and providing these visual 'indexes' that people are sharing on found dog posts!"

Bug installed a box outside her home last May, she estimates to have seen about 60 people use it over the past year. "My dream is that, like Little Libraries, there be one within each neighborhood or within easy walking distance of most places in the Metro area," Bug said. 

Click here to join the group for instructions on how to set up a box.

"You're talking probably less than $100," Echsner said.

Echsner said the ability to reunite a lost pet with its owner is worth the investment.

Copyright 2026 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.