I have my grey micro-chipped because I will be anything to get her back if she is lost. I realize that some people might just keep her but I rather believe that most people are honest and once they have Ana Grey around they will see that she is very loving and trusting so must belonged to a caring parront. She never even blinked when she was chipped and there were no ill effects, that I could see, at all. The assistant even came out so she could let me know that Ana Grey was a very tame and cooperative bird and didn't even flinch during the procedure. I did not have her put to sleep during the procedure as I believe that would have been more harmful than not. Before I had this done, I watched the procedure done on a video I found on the internet. It was done easily and none fearful by a competent person. The vets in my area do the ID checking without cost so a person who finds your pet would not have costs. The checking is very simple, they just run a scanner over your pet.