CONTRACTOR INVESTIGATED AFTER THROWING DEAD CAT IN A DITCH
A company contracted to dispose of dead animals on Auckland’s streets is investigating after a worker threw a distraught family’s dead cat in a ditch.
A Titirangi couple’s perseverance to recover their one-eyed cat Muffin, which was hit by a car and killed last weekend, uncovered what they say are “appalling” practices by the Henderson branch of road maintenance contractors Fulton Hogan.
The couple claim they discovered “multiple bones, including a full rib cage suspected to be from a domestic dog” in the ditch.
Fulton Hogan have given their “sincere apologies” to the family for what they admit is a breach of “common decency”.
Auckland Transport told the Herald on Sunday that it was “a really distressing situation”, but it would not comment on its ongoing contract with the company until its “employment discussions” had finished.
The couple put a call out for Muffin’s whereabouts on a community Facebook page, after she went missing last week.
“Replies to my post in search of Muffin . . . confirmed our worst nightmare,” the owners told the Herald on Sunday.
They learned that “a kind local uplifted Muffin from the road and placed her on the grass verge”.
“Unfortunately, I was 24 hours late with my post and despite rushing to the location, her body had gone.”
After contacting Auckland Council, the owners claim they were told: “Unfortunately, the cat was mangled and therefore our contractors buried her in Huia without scanning for a microchip”. They were then directed to Fulton Hogan.
The couple say the company’s Henderson Valley branch manager said “their employee had disposed of the cat by throwing her down a cliff in dense bush on Lone Kauri Rd. The employee claimed the cat was in two pieces.”
Muffin’s owners said they then travelled to the region in the
Waita¯kere Ranges with company staff and abseilers to retrieve the cat’s body. Unsuccessful in finding Muffin, the group left.
But about an hour or so later they were informed that Muffin has been found in a ditch 10km from the Henderson offices after staff reviewed the GPS tracking on the truck that did the job.
The couple are calling on the council to look into how long these practices have been going on by Fulton Hogan. They say they saw multiple bones at the spot Muffin’s body was found and believed some to be a rib cage of a dog.
“We just cannot believe that this is a one-off incident.”
Fulton Hogan’s Auckland regional manager Gavin Riddle told the Herald on Sunday they have investigated.
“The actions of the individual concerned are contrary to common decency and our company values and procedures around how we recover the bodies of pets, and we are currently dealing with the individual in an appropriate manner,” Riddle said. “We have expressed our sincere apologies to the family for the distress they have been through, and have also reiterated to our teams the duty of care we have when collecting deceased animals from the roading network.”
Replies to my post in search of Muffin . . . confirmed our worst nightmare. Muffin’s owner