A long line of cars around the parking lot of the Animal Welfare Association in North Bay on Saturday morning where dozens of cats and dogs received a microchip.

It is part of the event organized by the association where pets can get a small chip at a lower cost than usual.

Jessica Cocol, a director at the Animal Welfare Association, said: "It is an important technology to identify your animal and monitor its movements and overall health."

"The microchips are slightly smaller than a grain of rice and are inserted into the neck and remain there forever, so any animal agency or veterinarian will be able to scan an animal and locate it in case of loss."

Cocol told CTV News that far fewer animals would come to the shelter if all pets were microchipped.

She said: "I tell people all the time that if everyone microchipped their animals, we would definitely have far fewer dog houses here."

"We get a lot of stray dogs from the community, and some of them have gotten out, jumped the fence, and sometimes we can find their owners." She added that a dog with a microchip "we can easily return to its home."