Dear Editor,
I am curious to know if my family is the only ones to find out that the Animal Control officers do not have a universal scanner to check for microchips in your pet if it gets out and is lost or ran over.

When I was on the board of the CTSAC Animal Control had two. Asst Chief Fuller advised me today that they used to have one but it was lost or taken from the truck when it was being serviced. If you are wondering why I am bringing this topic up, it’s because of an unfortunate incident that happened to my daughter’s Shih Tzu last week. His name was Dexter, he was an inside pet that was loved and cared for from the moment his human mama saw him & adopted him from CTSAC eight years ago. I might add he was an escape artist, which is what happened when a door didn’t shut securely. As soon as the family discovered him gone everyone drove up & down streets in the Good Shepherd area. Phone calls were made to CTSAC & Animal Control.

The person at animal control told my daughter that recently a male Shih Tzu on 14th & 16th, he had been hit by a car & animal control had picked him up, bagged him and took him to the land fill. When I was told this, I remember from my connection with the animal center that animal control would bag the deceased animal & place it in a dumpster that would be picked up by the sanitation workers the next day. Armed with that information I called Animal Control, spoke with Judy Williams, who did remember picking Dexter up and followed procedures of her office. She immediately bagged him, placed him in a dumpster at CTSAC, to be taken to the landfill.

Once again an angel in the form of Amy Abernathy stepped in, rescued him from said dumpster Long story short, thanks to Amy we were able to have a proper permanent resting place for this beloved pet. After talking to Assistant Police Chief Fuller who is over Animal Control, the final word is there is no money in the budget for a microchip scanner to identify a pet when it is deceased and picked up by Animal Control so the owner may make a decision as to how the pet should be disposed of.  The owner may wish to pick up their pet for proper burial or may wish to have Animal Control follow their procedure to bag it, dump it to be taken to the landfill. Asst Chief Fuller did say he would visit with CTSAC to see if they would scan the pet before it is placed in the dumpster. After all, the city, CTSAC & vets all are asking the public to have all pets microchipped. I would think AC could see their way to have said scanners so they can follow up on the purpose of identifying these pets whether found alive or dead which is to save pet owners the unnecessary trauma of wondering if their pet will ever be found. I have had several people say they would donate to a fund for a universal scanner for animal control. This microchip scanner would be given in memory of DEXTER so hopefully other families don’t have to go thru such a trauma.

One other thing, when we at CTSAC there is flyer that stressed that pets should always have a collar & tags on. Now that would seem to me this should be stressed at location where microchipping of our pets is being done.

Johnnie Golden,

Brownwood