Letter to the Editor: What NOT to do if you find a dead cat

To the Editor:

We recently learned through our neighborhood grapevine that a cat matching our missing cat’s description was found dead at the Berean Church, 185th and 1st NE. She had been missing for less than 12 hours.

The pastor found her Friday morning and called Animal Control. Before Animal Control could retrieve her, an unknown person removed her to an unknown location, probably the nearest garbage can, without making any apparent effort to locate her human(s).

Our cat didn't have a collar on but she was chipped and licensed. Had her body been left for Animal Control to pick up, they would have scanned her and notified us.

Had her body not been "disappeared" we could have seen her one last time and possibly determined what befell her. At the very least, we could have brought her home and buried her where she lived and was loved.

So if you find a dead animal with no collar, CALL ANIMAL CONTROL and secure the animal for safekeeping until they arrive. Don't assume it's a stray and don't treat it like garbage even if it does turn out to be a stray.

Consider the possibility that its human doesn't even know it's been killed and is looking for it. If it's injured and you can't find its human, CALL ANIMAL CONTROL and secure the animal until they arrive. If you're like many of us, you'll take the animal to the closest vet who will scan it for a chip and notify its human(s).

Whatever you do, DON'T throw a dead animal in the garbage! Odds are, that's someone's beloved pet and they'll be heartbroken when they learn their furbaby has died - but even worse is having a beloved pet just disappear without knowing what happened.

Paige Garberding
Shoreline