2023-11-12 05:00:00
“Our cats are our babies“, summarize Mélanie and Idan. This couple from Brussels loves cats. They love them so much that they have “furnished the entire apartment“so that they feel as comfortable as possible.”We don’t have kids so we take care of them all the time.”
So when, at the beginning of September, their cat Tardis does not return, anxiety overcomes them. “As soon as we noticed the disappearance of one of our cats, we prepared posters and leaflets which we put up throughout the neighborhood“.
For a week, the couple will “go around the neighborhood calling him“Efforts that will remain in vain.”A local resident told us he found the body of a cat that matched the description. He sent us a photo. It looked like our cat, but we weren’t sure. He told us that he had found it in the street and that he notified the police who took care of it..”
“We have always heard that when a cat is found, it is scanned and its owners are notified, so we could not imagine that it was our cat. We contacted the police, they told us that they did not have a scanner and that we should contact the municipality.”
A succession of phone calls will then begin, then redirected in all directions. “At every step we were told they didn’t have a scanner“, are surprised by the Tardis owners, who will finally manage to reach the service which takes care of receiving the dead animals. An appointment is made and it is with a heavy heart that they go there. Better equipped as the municipal services, Mélanie and Idan bring their own scanner. They want to be sure that it is really their pet.
I’m still upset about it
Once there, the disillusionments will follow one another. Towards “a closet“, Idan will discover a freezer. Inside, “There were lots of plastic bags. The municipal agent opens them in front of Idan. “There were cats, rabbits, lots of deceased animals that they picked up on the roads“. A sight that turns his stomach.
And the computer scientist was not at the end of his surprises. “The municipality employee explains to me that when the fridge is full, they send them to the factory. I replied: ‘What’s it like at the factory? You don’t have them cremated?’ He tells me no, that they make it into raw material, like glue.”
For this animal lover, it’s too much. After realizing that one of the cats is indeed his, he returns traumatized. “I’m still upset about it even weeks later“, he confides.
“This is not an honorable end for pets“, he takes offense. “We live with them, they are our life companions and we treat them like that in the end… What shocks me the most is how they are treated afterwards. The fact that we transform dead animals, which belong to people, into raw materials to make glue.“
No following
Beyond the morbid spectacle he was confronted with, Idan is deeply disappointed with how this affair unfolded. “At no time did anyone try to find us. We tell ourselves that if we hadn’t insisted, we would still be looking in the street, waving bags of kibble, hoping that she would come back..”
If he was able to find his animal and give him the last goodbyes he deserved, the fact that some owners cannot do so is intolerable for Idan. “There are people who look for their cats every day, even though the municipality has taken care of it and made a business out of it.“.
The municipality wants to be more efficient
On the side of the municipal authorities, the spokesperson for the Animal Welfare alderwoman recalls that the primary objective is to “remove the body from the public highway to prevent the spread of pests or diseases“.
That’s for the cleanliness aspect. But what about the emotional aspect? François Descamps explains that the commune has “an agreement with a shelter“equipped with a scanner so that members of this shelter can pass through”regularly“to identify pets picked up on the roads and notify their owners. Only, “shelters are often overwhelmed“, specifies the spokesperson. Therefore, it is difficult to pass regularly.
In this sense, the municipality wishes to become more efficient and has launched steps to acquire scanners in order to be able to notify owners much more quickly. “We realized that collaborations with shelters sometimes take a little more time than what we could do ourselves and ultimately, these scanners can fit into a budget that we will make available. We will ensure that our services are equipped with it“, assures François Descamps.
“The city wants to be able to inform owners in the event of the death of their favorite animal“, concludes the spokesperson.
A scanner costs around a hundred euros.
It’s not “just a cat”
For veterinarian and journalist Hélène Gâteau, saying goodbye to her furry companion is very important. Hence the imperative for municipalities to be reactive on this subject. “When you have a pet, you are very attached to it. If it disappears, it can be very painful for the owners. To be able to mourn, because it is a real mourning like when you lose someone close to you, you have to know what happened to the animal“.
“Grieving should never be minimized“, she adds. “Just because it was ‘just a dog’ or ‘just a cat’ doesn’t mean the grieving is any less important. It can be of the same intensity as when you lose a loved one close to you.“.
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