"Oh and while I am on the phone"

[Tiggy's Mum]

Rosella, Have replied to your email....

[Ela]

When I asked why they don't have scanners they said it was because there are lots of different crews that go out and therefore they can't equip every crew with a scanner.

Surely they could just keep one or two at base.

[Rosella moggy]

I hardly dare ask Helen at the moment but has anyone any idea which is her council as they have introduced scanning machines.  I am trying to get Birmingham Council to introduce scanning machines and may have an influential neighbour on board with my mission

[Rosella moggy]

Just to update you on response and my reply to Birmingham City Council.  Council's response to my earlier email:

"Thank you for your e mail.  I can confirm after speaking with the street cleansing department, that dead animals collected by Birmingham city council  are not scanned for microchip or owner contact details.  I am sorry that you did not receive the advice you required when you called originally, but do not hesitate to contact us if you require any further help or assistance. Thank you for contacting Birmingham city council"

My very restrained response:

"I am grateful that you got back to me.  Please let me know who I should contact to use scanning machines in future and also to keep a record of dead cats collected so that owners can be notified or their pets identified if an owner somehow manages to contact Street Cleansing. Surely this couldn't be that difficult to arrange and wouldn't cost much.  I understand that other councils manage it.  My address is ......................... so I think I am in Mike Whitby's constituency.  Should I be contacting him direct or is there another councillor that is responsible for the Street Cleansing department?  Many thanks. Rosella"

[Tracey]

My council are crap. I had to ring up my council when Harry went missing before Christmas. Through posters i had had 2 calls at the time saying a dead tabby was seen on the road near me. I had looked there, but the cat had been removed. I asked the woman if a cat had been found on that road over the last 2 days. She came back and said that a black cat had been picked up by her. I asked if it was wearing a collar, and she "no idea...we dont record stuff like that"...then put the phone down on me. Sadly, i later found out it was Harry these calls (i had 6 in total) were on about and had sadly been killed on that road, and it was another poor kitty she had picked up. All they record is the colour and road....nothing else!!

I was so angry at not only her lack of info, but her crap compassion!

I never did get Harry back, i posted posters around the area asking for the person who moved him to get in touch...but they never did.

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

Well they could but they could have one where the animals are brought back to!

[Sam (Fussy_Furball)]

Nottingham City Council didn't have a scanner when I last enquired however they do keep a detailed log of all animals (even wild animals) that they pick up and they do contact the owners if there is identification.  When I asked why they don't have scanners they said it was because there are lots of different crews that go out and therefore they can't equip every crew with a scanner.

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

As I have the same council as Fuzzie , I wont hold my breath either!!

Completely useless and also break the law is all I can say about them!

[Lyn-Su]

I asked my OH to find out about what happends in our council (as he is a local councillor), in our council if a  dead animal is found with a collar they will notify the owners and if there is notification on the animal that they are micro chipped they will take them to a vets to be scanned.

This seems stupid to me as I presume this means that if an animal has no collar/id tag, but are still microchipped they wont get scanned.

I need to take this up with my OH, but it's difficult as he has enough people wanting his help with casework, without me moaning at him every 5 mins, but I'll see what I can do.

It's interesting to see that other authorities do scan all animals found and actually own the equipment themselves.

Lyn

[Rosella moggy]

Just sent this to the street cleansing dept of Birmingham Council.  Mike Whitby is our councillor (and I think Council Leader).  I'll let you know if anyone ever gets back to me but not holding my breath meanwhile..

"Could you please tell me whether dead cats that are found or collected by Birmingham council are scanned for microchips and the owners contacted before disposal.  Also, if cats do not have microchips or other identification, is there a register kept detailing where the cat was found and a description of the cat in case the owner contacts your department?  I tried phoning about this but, after holding on for about 15 minutes, the woman I spoke to insisted that she could not put me through to street cleansing and gave me the animal welfare number.   When I spoke to them, they said it is nothing to do with them and I needed to speak to street cleansing.  As I understand it, scanning machines cost very little and the RSPCA and other animal welfare charities are encouraging as many of us as possible to microchip our animals which means a lot more animals are microchipped nowadays.  Don't mean to be a pain but I am copying Mike Whitby in on this to try and ensure someone gets back to me."

[Tan]

My council is awful here. When i was trying to find out Puddin (the stray i was trying to save yrs ago)  going missing. the council said they had not picked up a cat anywhere in my area but i was told by a neighbour that a cat fitting Puddin's description was picked up by the council cause the council men knocked on her door to ask if the cat had an owner round here.

I told the council that and they srill said no cat had been picked up!

More likely they never kept a record of what they pick up or scan!! I wrote a complaint to them but nothin has come of it.  

[ccmacey]

And if they had a color with a name and number on would they bother to phone the owner?

[ccmacey]

The animal welfare are not interested in animal welfare, they are only interested in getting paid. I was told by my local AW that they do not try to find the owner of a cat but do a dog as they have to report found dogs to the police. I suppose thats the reason why if you run a cat over you do not have to stop by law but you do have to stop if you run a dog over. Total shambles.

[Michelle (furbabystar)]

ok -
Right my council put me through to the street cleaners (outside contract)
I asked if all Cats picked up were checked for a mircochip and The women on the phone told me that they do scan all dead animals for a chip and owners contacted if chip found.

I then asked if a record is kept of the animals found without a chip to which she said "sort of"
i asked her to explane and she said "well we have a rough idea of what has been picked up"
"a rough idea ?" i replied !!!!

"well erm erm we get told  if they had a collar on or something"

"ok so you would know if a cat was picked up in a certain road then, you would know the colour and description ? If i rang and said i had lost a cat in "whatever road" you would be able to tell me if a cat matching that description had been picked up ??"

Women - "Erm it depends really, I mean How can i help, have you lost a cat then ?" (she was getting tongue tied by now)

"No i just wondered what your policys were - Thank you goodbye"

SO BAD LUCK FOR US IN THIS BOROUGH THEN !!

[Tiggy's Mum]

This was the reply I got when I asked a few weeks ago....


Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, but I was away when your first e-mail came through and have been trying to catch up ever since.

In answer to your enquiry, until recently, the council did not have any micro-chip scanners to use when responding to reports of dead animals (both cats and dogs the same).

However, we now have purchased a couple and our contractors are due to be trained (early Feb) in the correct use of these so they can in future scan the animals to see if they are micro-chipped. Until this training is carried out I cannot yet comment on the process of then notifying owners/the micro-chip company of the found animal.
 
Currently though, when our contractors respond to reports of dead animals a description is recorded and if the animal has an identification tag on the contractors will endeavour to make contact with the owner/details on the tag. Unfortunately, many of the animals found are not wearing any identification tags so they are unable to do anything other than record the description and remove the animal.

Due to storage capacity, our contractors cannot keep any animals found for later collection by the owners – the owner can of course collect the animal from the site it is found if this can be arranged between the owner and our contractors.

I hope this answers your question – but please come back to me if you have any further queries.

 

[Michelle (furbabystar)]

I'll check with my council -

give me 10mins

[fuzziesdad]

says me to my local council "do you have a scanner to check animals picked up off the roads" you might have thought I actually said do you have aliens working in your dept,
 we will check for you "also do you keep a register of any animal collected off the roads" we will also check that as well!  I am not going to hold my breathe though.
how many councils don't have a scanner?
 
roger.