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Pet tracking collars turned into bricks overnight [1]

['Rob Beschizza']

Date: 2025-07-31

Tractive sold internet-connected GPS pet trackers. Then it sold out to the pet food subsiary of candy giant Mars, and one of its product lines was remotely disabled. Scharon Harding reports on a corporate acquisition that disappeared a useful and well-liked gadget entirely.

By unifying efforts under a single, powerful technology platform, Tractive can deliver new features and improvements faster, more reliably, and with greater impact for all users—including former Whistle customers.

The trackers in question were originally marketed by Whistle in 2013. Whistle was sold to Tractive in 2016. With this subsequent sale, technical debt is the given excuse—"… maintaining and developing two separate ecosystems—devices, apps, and software—doubles the complexity and could limit the quality of service and innovation."

Warranties voided, device data lost, unique features unavailable: "Tractive devices don't have all the features that Whistle's product line has, including the Health 2.0 Smart Device's efforts to track pets' licking, scratching, eating, drinking, and sleeping," writes Harding.

Perhaps the saddest thing about Whistle trackers getting bricked—in addition to people's $70-to-$150 purchases becoming useless—is that thousands of GPS trackers and monitors will morph into e-waste in about a month. It's unclear how many Whistle trackers remain active as of this writing, but in 2015, Forbes reported that Whistle had 100,000 active devices.

You've heard of the internet of shit. Now it's gone to the dogs!

Previously:

• Samsung remotely bricked TVs stolen from warehouse

• Polish hackers could be sued for unlocking commuter trains 'bricked' by manufacturer

• The time a hacker remotely bricked cars in Texas

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