Kelloggs' Story - A Beloved Cat Landfilled Following Hit and Run
Losing a treasured pet is an extremely distressful time for anyone. Cats are and always will be an important furry member of any family who owns one. Beth Davies, of Wigan, was devastated when her 5-year-old ginger tom Kelloggs was ran over and killed in a car accident. But she suffered even more heartbreak when she found out that Kelloggs' body had been whisked away by the council along with the weekly rubbish.
After finding out through Facebook that Kelloggs had been run over, Beth and her family set about finding him so they could organise a cremation. They felt reassured when they found out the council had discovered him. Kelloggs was microchipped, so they assumed the council would allow them to identify him and collect his remains.
However, this wasn't to be.
Beth and her family spent a week trying to find out what happened to Kelloggs, until the council called her and admitted Kelloggs' remains were swept up by binmen and taken to landfill. The family was devastated to learn how Kelloggs was treated- like he was just roadkill. It's hard enough for families to cope with the loss of their pet, never mind learning how they were left to suffer and then scooped away like rubbish.
Perhaps the most upsetting part of this story is that this kind of practice is not unusual. Unfortunately, cats are struck and dumped by councils all too regularly, as there is no law in place that requires councils to scan cats for microchips in order to reunite them with grieving owners. Too many owners with missing cats find themselves forever wondering about the unknown fate of their feline and are never truly able to grieve. Owners won't ever get true closure from the disappearance of their cats until councils and road users educate themselves and do what is right by cats and their owners.
Every owner deserves to know when their cat has been killed and it's time councils do more to protect our cats and take responsibility when incidents like this happen.
The Wigan council admitted that they had not followed procedure in regards to the case of Kelloggs'. They offered a donation to CatsMatter by way of apology.
