Caltrans Buries Pet, with Tags, Without Notifying Animal Control

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This is a rather long story but very important to those of us who have missing animals-

Two of my dogs were carelessly let out of my yard 8/13/08 by a neighbor. They made it from my home on Anacapa to the 101/ Garden Street on-ramp and entered the freeway. A few wonderful people notified Animal Control to respond and Liam, the larger of the two, was rescued. I was notified at 8:45 a.m. by the woman who was able to snatch Liam off of the freeway, and was combing the freeway for Louie, the Boston terrier, by 8:53 a.m.

My friend and I searched both sides of the 101 from Milpas to Carrillo for almost five hours!! Animal Control remained in direct contact with us and had no further reports of Louie the Boston. At one point I was informed by a witness that Louie had been hit by a car and did not survive. She was adamant that he was picked up by a person in uniform almost immediately afterward. Animal Control did not have any reports on Louie nor had they picked up any dogs matching Louie's description.

So, we continued the search. Some of you reading this may have seen us searching for Louie on the 101. At close to 2 p.m. we had made enough of a spectacle to warrant both Caltrans and the Highway Patrol to approach us and inquire as to what we were doing. The officer was obviously pissed that we were out there, but the Caltrans worker informed me that one of his co-workers had picked up a "stray dog" that had been hit earlier in the morning and had buried it near the Garden Street overpass. He called his co-worker and confirmed my description of the dog. The second Caltrans employee responded to the site where he "buried" the dog and about 300 feet in front of me (the original Caltrans guy held me back) stepped into the brushes and popped back out with a bright orange bag that he threw into the back of his vehicle.

Eventually I was handed the bag and indeed to my horror Louie was inside. Caltrans had not bothered to notify Animal Control or call any of the phone numbers listed on the tags on Louie's collar. When I asked why the f*&% they hadn't called anyone they informed me that when they picked up "strays" they just bagged them and buried them.

My point in writing all of this down for you, dear readers, is that if I had not happened upon a witness and eventually put both my friend and myself in harms way for an extended period of time I would have never known what happened to Louie. I would still be searching for him. Had Caltrans had the basic humanity and compassion to take the one minute needed to notify Animal Control of the situation my five hours of panicked searching and hope would have at least ceased and the closure and healing could begin.

If you are missing an animal I urge you to contact Caltrans as well. I wish you the best in your search and hope that you are reunited with you beloved pet.

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