Lost Pets are NOT Trash; Demand NYC get a policy!

One morning while driving on the BQE, Elizabeth saw the body of a beagle on the side of the road. Although she only caught a glimpse, she could see it had on a sweater and collar and it was apparent to her that this was a well cared for beloved dog. Since she was in a lane without a shoulder, she was not able to stop or turn around. Saddened, she continued on the highway but she could not shake the image of the dead dog from her mind.

Elizabeth returned as soon as she could to look for the dog but there was no trace of it. That same day she was informed by a friend that there were multiple posters in the neighborhood looking for a beagle matching that description and wearing the same distinct sweater and collar. She knew instantly that this was the same dog, a beloved member of someone's family. She contacted the owners and told them what she had seen. This launched a search mission to find the missing pet, Edie.

After being bounced back and forth between multiple NYC sanitation garages indifferent to their crisis, the family learned that the Department of Sanitation had picked up the dog’s remains and had tossed her into a trash bag like a piece of garbage. Had Edie’s grieving owners not persisted, their beloved would have been disposed of without them ever knowing what happened to her.
Shockingly this dreadful experience revealed that there is no compassionate policy in place to identify and contact owners when animals are found on public property and roadways.

Edie is not the only pet to have suffered such a fate, and many people search for their missing pets for years with no knowledge of what has happened. This must and should change given that most household pets have some form of identification on them whether it is an easily scanned microchip or a collar with a name or phone number. However, just like Edie, these cherished members of our families are literally treated as garbage because NYC agency policies don't permit efforts to be made to identify them and contact the grieving families.


We, the undersigned, call on the Department of Sanitation, and the Department of Transportation in coordination with the ASPCA to honor the memory of Edie and countless other pets by adopting a humane policy for the notification of owners concerning the fate of their missing pets and for the creation of a system for the return to their owners of the remains of pets recovered on our roadways.