Residents are being encouraged to attach tags or identifiers to their pets in case they go missing.
St. Clair Township Director of Public Works and Engineering Brian Black provided advice for pet owners in light of a recent incident discussed on social media involving a deceased dog found in a rural area.
"When pets are lost, the first thing an owner should do is contact the municipal office in their area. That will basically allow the personnel at the township to identify the animal if it is found in the roadway," Black told Sarnia News Today. "I think there are things that owners can do in advance of losing a pet. If you have a pet, having it properly tagged, you can also get a chip installed in the animal."
St. Clair Township does not currently have microchip scanners to help identify found deceased animals.
Without ownership information, Black said their protocol is to contact animal control, which for the township is handled by Jeff Dewhirst.
"They'd pick the animal up, take it to a nearby animal hospital where it would be scanned if it didn't have a dog or cat tag on it," Black said.
Members of the public works department were recently dispatched to handle a deceased dog, however, it didn't have tags or any identification. Black said the fairly new employees contacted the office to see if anyone had reported a lost pet, but there had been no claims.
"They dealt with it under our roadkill protocol, which typically, we would have contacted animal control. In this case, it wasn't done," Black said.
Coordinator of Operations Dave Neely said it is fairly rare that domesticated dogs are found deceased and not claimed.
“Typically, in residential areas, we would knock on doors and exhaust all avenues to locate an owner. Because the dog was recovered in a rural area without identification, the animal’s remains were disposed of nearby,” Neely said in an emailed statement.
“Animal removal and wildlife handling is not something we take lightly,” said Neely. "We are engaged in ongoing discussions, to enhance our protocols and ensure animal control expertise is deployed whenever necessary."
Black said since the recent incident, domestic animal protocols have been reviewed and communicated with operating staff.
He said protocols are typically reviewed once per year.
