Dealing with death is always a sensitive topic. We want every animal reunited with their caregiver and given the opportunity for closure, but the reality is that is near impossible without identification. The Winnipeg Humane Society received 201 deceased cats to date in 2019 and of those, 129 were unidentified stray cats/kittens with no visible identification. Only 3 were reunited with their caregiver, just over 2%. We need to prioritize our efforts on helping cats with live outcomes and helping cats with identification.
We have implemented a change to the process of what happens when the City of Winnipeg picks up a cat that has died on our city streets. All cats with visible identifiers will still be brought to the WHS for attempt at reunification. When a concerned citizen brings in a deceased cat to the WHS, we will search for their identification, from a visible tattoo to microchip scanning.
The remainder of the deceased cats collected will be scanned for microchips at the WHS, before being brought to a designated pet burial location at the Brady Landfill if none is found. We will now only be keeping the cats with identification (tattoos and microchips) at the shelter, in order to search for their caregiver. These cats will be communally cremated after the search or returned to the owner if the reunification is successful.
If a deceased cat is picked up by the City of Winnipeg, the following process will occur:
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- If the cat has no tattoo, the cat is scanned for a microchip. If there is none, then the cat is brought to the designated pet burial location in the Brady Landfill.
- If the cat has a tattoo or a scanned microchip, the cat is brought to the WHS to search for the caregiver and then communally cremate (if no owner found) or return body (if caregiver found).
Every day, the Winnipeg Humane Society is dealing with a community in need. We have families that are wanting to surrender their pets for behaviour or other issues and need immediate counselling. We have the good Samaritan bringing in an injured animal off the street. And we have the hundreds of lost and found animals we are trying to reunite every year – both alive and deceased. This is what our community demands of us day in and day out.
We make every effort to serve our community and help as many animals as we can. But the community can help too. It is imperative for Winnipeg cat owners to ensure their cats identity when it comes to the difficult situation of being lost or worse. That means taking three important precautions:
- Tattooing is an affordable and visual way of ID’ing your cat.
- By licensing your cat with the City of Winnipeg, you ensure there is a physical address connected with your cat. A collar with that information increases the chances of being reunited quickly and easily.
- Microchipping is an additional safeguard. You must keep your address up to date to ensure you can always be contacted.
We can do better by these unidentified animals and we would like each person who has lost a pet to have closure, but that involves you. Thankfully, these unidentified animals have been given a special designated pet burial location in the Brady Landfill. We encourage everyone in our community to talk about this issue and share information with each other. The Winnipeg Humane Society is not just about finding homes for adoptable animals. We also do our best for lost and deceased animals to find their homes as well. This starts with identification.