The story of Andy Whittley’s cat Wilma is sadly educational and a reminder that not all local authorities (councils) discharge their responsibilities properly or so it appears.
Wilma was micrchipped and she had a collar with an identity tag. Wilma went missing and, unknown to Andy, Wilma (who suffered from fits) had been fatally hit by a car after she disappeared on the morning of New Year’s Eve.
While Andy was frantically searching for his beloved cat, who he had adopted five years early as her foster carer, the council had collected Wilma’s body after a person had phoned them and told them that cat had been killed on the road.
The council placed Wilma in a freezer but staff allegedly did not scan for a micrcochip nor check the collar. Therefore they did not contact Andy.
In the meantime, Andy’s friend, Frances, had started a Facebook campaign to find Wilma. Through Facebook she learned that someone had found a deceased cat and that the body had been taken by the council. Andy phoned the council and they scanned the microchip and confirmed the body was that of Wilma.
Andy collected her body and we are told ‘put her to rest’, which indicates that he buried her. But he complained that the council put him through five days of heartache while he searched for her. And he can’t understand why the council did not contact him as Wilma carried two forms of identification.
She had a collar on with a phone number and was microchipped, I don’t know why they couldn’t have contacted me on New Year’s Eve when it happened. I am just so upset, I was hoping that she was alive somewhere, but it was five days of heartbreak instead. Don’t just ring the vets and Blue Cross, but the council as well. You can get a tracker for them so that’s what I’m buying next for Fred.
Fred is his second cat who is missing his companion Wilma. The council say that they have procedures which includes keeping a record of all the animals they pick up. But they say they could not scan Wilma to check if she had been chipped and that the tag could not be found. As reported by Grimsby Live.com they don’t explain why they were unable to scan Wilma.
Moral: phone the local authority fairly early on if you are searching for a lost cat in the UK.
