Kiki let down by the council

Tiki was last seen on the night of 1st December. The Kennedy family went straight into search mode to find her, including the families eldest daughter posting on local lost and found websites. As a result of the posts, she got a text from the local school on Wednesday the 3rd. They said Kiki was found up near the local school after sadly being hit by a car. They sent a photo to them to confirm if it was really Kiki or not, and they knew instantly it was her. The lady who found Kiki had reported it to the council on the Tuesday and took the photo moments before they came and collected her. Getting this news on the Wednesday, the family phoned the council straight away but they failed to get back to them. Thursday came and they phoned again but were still being fobbed of saying nobody was there, then they were on the phone... the family were so disappointed! After having enough just wanting Kiki back and answers, they phoned back and demanded to speak to someone or they would be taking further action. The supervisor then responded telling them Kiki had been disposed of on the same day she was collected but said the worker who lifted her said she was in a bad way so couldn't be scanned.

Remember the family were sent a photo as Kiki lay there moments before the council came to collect her. She lay seemingly uninjured, as if she was just taking a nap.

The family challenged the supervisor and made the point of, regardless of the state of cats they collect, they should still make attempts to scan them. The supervisor said it was policy to scan, but the guy who does the scanning was not there that day. He also told the family that they usually keep them for 3 days, but this hadn't happened in Kiki's case. All the family got was sorry as it shouldn't of happened and that the new the protocol was cats were to be kept for three days so owners get the chance to reunite with there pet.

The family feel so hurt and disappointed at getting treated this way, and how the families 2 young children never got to say goodbye to their little mate who they class as a best friend and huge part of the family.

The family had been through immense pain previously following the tragic loss of a family member, and feel this incident has caused old memories to resurface as they are again faced with a family death with no answers or closure.

The family are keen to raise awareness and aim to get justice for Kiki so no one else has to go through what they have. The family adored Kiki and are grateful for the special memories they all made with her.

We have contacted the council in question, Ards and North Down Borough Council, and intend to get some answers for the family. Council policy is supposedly to scan domestic pets found, and store them for 3 days. Neither were done in Kiki's case, with the additional failures of record keeping and passing the family around. Unfortunately Kiki's incident highlights how there are still flaws in certain council's systems of collecting/scanning pets. Whilst we continue work on getting legislation in place to ensure drivers stop and help/report cats, we are also making ground on the council collection/scanning issues with the UK government. Incidents like what happened to Kiki is unacceptable and we stand firm with family who deserve justice for her.