Please sign my petition re: council collection of dead animals

[hcafc_laura]

Just to say first that I did email admin prior to posting this to check it was okay and they said yes...

I have started a petition and am wondering if any of you may be interested in signing. Here's a bit of background info.

Almost 4 weeks ago, my cat, Lexi, was run over and killed. Her body was taken in by a lady who lived nearby. She wasn't sure who the cat belonged to so contacted the council who then came and collected her. The council informed the lady that they would do everything they could to get her back to her owners.

It wasn't untill later on that we realised what had happened. We got in touch with the council and asked for Lexi's body back to bury her. We heard nothing from the council before we got intouch with them, this despite what they told the lady when they collected her, they had made no effort to reunite us.

She was returned to us the next morning by a council worker, who informed us that we were lucky to be getting her back because they normally dispose of dead animals on the night of the day they are found. This made me wonder just how many peoples pets go 'missing' never to be heard of again, when actually they are picked up by the waste management department of local councils.

I have started this petition in the hope it will become law for all local councils to have to do everything in their power to get dead animals collected back to their owners. This would be very simple for them to do. First they should check animals for a micro-chip, which is very easy to do. If the animal isn't chipped they should then get in touch with local animal organisations to see if any animals have been reported as missing. Had this been done in my case I would have had Lexi back much sooner.

Please sign my petition by clicking on the list below and pass it on to your friends.

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Lexixxx/

After signing, please don't forget to click on the link in the email sent to you. This confirms your signature, and without clicking it, your name will not be added.

Thanks for reading.

P.S - It broke my heart just now whilst registering, when it asked how many cats I had and I had to put 'NA'

[smudgley]

Sorry to hear about your cat.

Welcome to Catsey.

[yola]

Hi, welcome from me also. Reading my Cats Protection magazine last night it seems there is something at the early stages of moving through parliament to essentially force local councils to check for microchips in RTA cats and advise owners accordingly. At present some carry this out but many don't.

I therefore think your petition is timely (I'll sign it shortly) and I really hope it makes a difference.

Oh, and I'm so very sorry you lost Lexi in this way. Never nice to loose a pet but an RTA raises many questions that are often left unanswered.

[Elaine]

So very sorry to hear about Lexi xxx

[dandysmom]

I'd gladly sign if I were a British citizen. How horrible for you; best of luck in getting lots of signatures. A well-needed reform IMO!

[hcafc_laura]

Thanks everyone.

Yeah I heard about the cat protection campaign. They've been good actually and said they would link the petiton on their extranet (think thats what they said they called it) site. I felt really let down by my local cat protection when we thought Lexi was missing (not knowing she had been run over and taken in by someoen) but they've made up for it a little now.

[Kim]

So sorry to hear about Lexi and well done for trying to do something! I will sign your petition.

[random]

Very sorry to hear about Lexi, I lost a cat in an RTA myself and another who 'went missing' as you said, we never did find out what happened to her but she was older and ill too so very doubtful she was takin in by someone alive, but yes the council here were of no use at all to us in a very distressful time.

[hcafc_laura]

Thanks for your kind words.

Lexi was the third cat we have lost to RTAs since moving into this house almost 9 yrs ago. She was just 17 months old. She was my baby and I miss her every minute of every day, it's totally broken me. It was awful getting her brought back to us in a yellow disposal bag and the lasting image I have of her is of her laying there, in the same position she often slept in, but with blood round her mouth and ears. I can't get it out of my head. I just hope she died instantly.
What hurts more is she never, ever went out on the road where she was killed, she was just chasing nextdoors cat. The driver who hit her never even stopped, but luckily three lads saw it happen and went straight away to get help, knocking on the ladies door who took her in.

And now I'm crying again...

[yola]

Oh how sad. I really feel for you

Do you think you'd consider keeping any future cats indoors? I live on a busy road and my 3 cats are more or less indoor ones with occasional supervised access to the back garden. It's taken a while to train them but we're at the point where they are very disinterested about leaving the confines of the garden.