Poppy belonged to a family that loved her. She escaped in the early hours of last Sunday morning. Within a few hours of leaving she was killed on the A6 in Stockport.
A police officer found her body and following protocol, Poppy’s body was picked up by the Highway Agency and transported to Bredbury tip, a council run operation. Did they bother to scan Poppy’s body to see who she belonged to? NO.
Thankfully, the police officer got in touch with the RSPCA to let them know that a deceased Yorkie’s body had been found and on its way to the tip. RSPCA managed to find out that there was indeed a missing Yorkie reported on Facebook, very likely Harvey’s Army North FB page because that’s who Poppy’s owners turned to for help. RSPCA got in touch with Poppy’s owners.
Poppy’s owners found out from the police that the deceased body was collected and sent to Bredbury tip. The owners drove to the depot demanding answers and asked to have their dog back. But they didn’t give her back. They told the family that the body was on it’s way to Northampton to be incinerated with the rest of the other found deceased animals. Did they scan her? Can they confirm it’s Poppy? NO. They hadn’t.
The owners then drove down to Northampton to collect the body who they believe is possibly their dog. Actually, the body never left the depot. Instead she had been left overnight in the back of the van that was supposed to be transporting her.
When they realised that Poppy had not made it to Northampton, her owners persisted and kept calling and demanding answers from the depot. Finally, two days after Poppy was picked up on the highway, the driver who was driving the van got in touch with the owners. He told the owners that he would meet them in Leigh where they could pick up their dog. Has she been scanned? NO.
So all this time, no one was for sure that it was Poppy that was found.
Poppy’s owner, Paul travelled to Leigh to meet the driver so that he could pick up his family pet. Indeed there were other deceased dogs and cats in the van – the ones who have not been scanned and whose families will never know they have gone.
Paul finally got home on Tuesday at 4pm. A Harvey’s Army representative met the family at their house and immediately scanned for a chip to be sure it was Poppy. Within a second of the scanner being near her little body, it beeped. The chip number came up. Sadly, it was Poppy. It was really that easy to identify a deceased body of a chipped pet animal.
Harvey’s Army rang Petlog, the chip company to ask if anyone had requested the details for a chip check. They confirmed that NO ONE has. This meant that all those people/agencies who had received Poppy’s body had not bothered to scan her to try to locate her family – even though they claimed to have done so. They were just carelessly getting rid of another deceased animal body.
Harvey, for whom Harvey’s Army was named after, died almost two years ago – alone on a highway. No one scanned him nor bother to look at his tag to call his family – even though he was chipped and tagged. His family searched for months and months before miraculously, someone at the Highway Agency remembered picking up a poodle type dog the night Harvey went missing and contacted the family. Only then did his family learn of his fate – and had closure. Because of Harvey, 100,000+ people signed a petition that over turned a law at Parliament – that from that point on, all deceased animals found by Highway Agencies must be scanned and their family located and informed.
But that law does not apply to Council roads. Please, please don’t let Poppy die in vain. We need to make it law that all Council agencies SHOULD scan animals they have found! There is no reason they shouldn’t. Harvey’s Army have demonstrated how easy it is to scan for chipped animals who are someone’s pets. For them it’s a few minutes from their job, for a family it’s the absolute world. For them it’s closure.
RIP POPPY.
We will continue to fight on your behalf for the dignity of all pets and for the right of owners to know if their pets have been found or killed on the roads. We need to make this mandatory and once again, we have to reach 100,000 signatures to make it law. We’re at 31,000+. We NEED your help.
EXTEND HARVEY’S MANDATE TO ALL COUNCIL ROADS – ensuring all animals are scanned. Click here to sign petition (you must be a UK resident) – UK Petition – For all Councils to scan our pets
Please share this, get people in the UK to sign and get it passed so that councils, ALL COUNCILS must scan OUR pets should they receive them.
One Response
Oh may I can’t believe what I have just read.
How awful, I would be traumatised to think that my beloved Ralph or ruby was just tossed into a van and off to the tip.
Surely it is easy for these official agencies to have a scanner and scan for chips?
I think the not knowing what has happened to our pets is so much worse than facing a sad reality.
Rest in peace little poppy x
Petition signed!!