A Sad tale

[YOLO]

Recently, driving home along a relatively busy road, my passenger observed a council worker placing a dog into a plastic bag.  Obviously a sad event, and not a particularly pleasant job.

 

That afternoon there was a post on our community facebook page about a lost dog in that vicinity.  Rather than scare the owner, I rang the Wanneroo Council Rangers to enquire. 

So, the next distressing thing is that if enquiring about a deceased pet, one has to speak to the "Waste Disposal" department.  Yeah. 

 

They confirmed that, from the microchip, the poor boy was registered to the lady in question.  But said they had been "unable to contact her."  So I then had to inform this poor young lady, via messenger, that her boy was gone, and that his body had already been "taken care of".  Obviously I didn't mention that the Wanneroo council dumps such animals in landfill.

 

To me, there are just so many thing wrong with this story.

• Some arsehole hitting a dog and leaving it to die by the side of the road
• Council allocating the task to "Waste Disposal"
• Failure of the "microchip system"
• Council's incompassionate handling of remains.

[~Anne~]

I thought it was still illegal to dispose of dogs in landfill? 
 

It’s worse for cat owners. They’re rarely scanned for a chip. 

Edited February 9, 2022 by ~Anne~

[leac1801]

I don’t know what else you think they should do with the bodies. The waste disposal team are the most appropriate to deal with it, you may not like that it is considered waste, but it is, even in clinic. 

 

I recently had to look this up as part of a course I was doing — I found a lot of councils on the east coast were more likely to have information on their website regarding the disposal of animal bodies in landfill, and days and times it could be done. You can’t just stick your dog in the bin and have it go out with your usual waste, but it can be taken to the facility. 
 

This is from Moreton Bay Council in Qld. 

[Little Gifts]

People wrongly assume the microchip system works like magic but it also relies on new owners to ensure their pet is both chipped in their name and that address and phone information is kept up to date at all times.

 

I had a foster dog transferred over to me (had all the paperwork) and a post came up about checking your pet's micro-chip details. My doggo was not there so I rang the company and was told there was something wrong with the paperwork so it never went through properly. But they never bothered to contact me on the info provided or the rescue group or even the vet who did the micro-chipping. I'd had the dog permanently about 7 months by then. And on lost and found pages you regularly hear about lost dogs with no collar on and the owner saying they've recently moved (although you'd assume the mobile number was still the same). So we also need to take personal responsibility for ensuring those chip details are always current.