A woman has complained after her dead cat was returned to her by a council worker "swinging it" in a black bin bag.
Patricia Preston was on holiday when a neighbour called her telling her an animal resembling her pet Fred had been run over by a car and killed near their home Gravesend, Kent.
When she returned from her trip, Ms Preston contacted Gravesend Council, who confirmed they had retrieved a dead black cat from the road Ms Preston lives.
She was told she could come and identify and collect the remains from the council’s waste management facility where Fred was being stored in a freezer.
After a “long wait”, she told Kent Online that a worker arrived “swinging a black bag”.
“He did not show any empathy or sympathy, he was just indifferent to the situation," she said. “It was just another day, another dead animal, was his attitude.”
She added that it was difficult to judge from the frozen remains with certainty whether the cat in the bag was definitely Fred and that the council staff had been unable to check the microchip because the member of staff who operated the machine was on holiday.
She later took the cat to a vet who was able to read the microchip and confirm the body was Fred’s.
Ms Preston is now calling for a change in council procedure to ensure all animals killed on the road are routinely scanned.
“I just want to ensure it doesn’t happen to anyone else,” she said.
Stuart Alford, assistant director of operations at Gravesham council, apologised and said he would look into the incident in more detail.
He said: “Our aim is to remove any dead animal from the roadside as soon as possible after they are reported to reduce distress for passers-by and to reunite pets with their owners as quickly as possible. In this case we did scan for a microchip when the pet arrived at our depot but unfortunately our equipment did not pick the tag up.
“However, the pet was logged and tagged as per our normal procedures, meaning we were able to quickly establish it was with us when we were contacted by the owner. There was an issue over the location of the microchip scanner on the day the pet was collected by the family.”
He added: “I would like to apologise for any additional distress this caused to the family in this instance but to reassure that all pets we collect are treated with respect and compassion at all times. The majority of people who we reunite with their pets are thankful we have collected them so they can retrieve their pet and pay their last respects.
“Indeed, this is the first complaint we have received since the current system was introduced a number of years ago.”
