How do you feel about microchips?

Likewise, in my country, one will risk getting fine if the dog is not microchip. Apparently it is for tracking purpose should the dog get lost one day. But, there is an incident not too long ago, that when they owner went to lodge a report that their dog was missing, the authorities state that they can't help as they do not have the database of the microchip. This defeat the purpose especially when the reason given does not serve the purpose. And seeing how much the dog got to suffer just to be it, we can do away without it.

They do help. BUT even though I am a computer and network technician, I am against chips being inserted into the body of any animal. I would prefer a belt / collar with the same function.

We do not have our dogs (or cats) at home microchipped. We keep their collars on them as tightly as we can (while using the two-finger rule) and we have updated rabies tags on their collars. These tags have a number and the name of our clinic so that if someone finds them we can be found. I do know that microchipping really helps, especially for outside dogs and dogs who do not wear collars regularly, but for any other dog (or cat) as well. Most, if not all, animal hospitals and shelters have a scanner that can be used to identify your pet. We have a scanner at work that we have used to successfully reunite owners with their lost pets.

In my country you are somehow forced to have your dog microchipped. If you want to take your dogs with you abroad, they have to be microchipped. If you want to enter your dogs in any canine competition, they have to be microchipped. But if you are not intrested either in leaving the country with your dogs nor in participating in any dog show, nobody force you to microchip them. As for the identification of the dog in case they get lost, there is a small chance to get them back due to the microchip, because not any veterinarian or dog shelter has a microchip reader. At least not in my country.