Turnout for the Brownsville Animal Regulation and Care Center’s Microchip Madness Event on Saturday exceeded expectations for staff as tens of dog and cat owners started lining up outside the facility an hour and a half before the event officially started at noon.

After a little over two hours, on the BARCC Facebook page, adoption specialist Sarah Santos posted that the group had officially run through the 100 free microchips donated by Best Friends Animal Society for the event.

“I saw that line outside and I thought ‘we are going to do so good today. So, so good’,” Santos said in an interview before the event started.

Santos spearheaded the project a little over a month ago to provide free microchips to residents ahead of the Fourth of July holiday. Due to people setting off fireworks, the shelter regularly sees an influx of 15 to 20 animals each year from July 4 to July 6 as animals that have run away from their owners and homes during celebrations are taken to the center.

BARCC staff Valerie Enriquez holds Valentina the cat still as she prepares to administer the microchip Saturday for the Microchip Madness Event at the Brownsville Animal Regulation and Care Center. (Denise Cathey/The Brownsville Herald)

With the shelter already overwhelmed with 170 animals currently in residence, Santos wanted to be proactive and help residents comply with Brownsville city ordinances that require animals be microchipped, at no cost to them.

The chip itself is about the size of a grain of rice and can be easily inserted under the skin at the back of the neck of a cat or dog using a 12 gauge needle. From there staff are able to add the owner’s information to the microchip in the database so if the animal does get lost, a scanner will pick up the chip’s info and the animal can be returned.

Miranda Herbert got to the facility early to wait in line with her Chihuahua, named “Phoebe,” due to her dog’s habit of getting out of the family’s yard through holes — despite the family’s best attempts to block these avenues of escape. To make matters worse, Phoebe also is too small to use regular dog collars, and the cat collars that do fit her often snap off. Herbert is worried that due to Phoebe’s fear of fireworks, if she escapes over the weekend it might be impossible for anyone to know who to return her to without a microchip.

Pet owners line up outside the facility Saturday for the Microchip Madness Event at the Brownsville Animal Regulation and Care Center. (Denise Cathey/The Brownsville Herald)

“We’re getting her microchipped just in case,” she said.

For more information or to check for future events, you can reach out to the center at (956) 544-7351.