Dog Cheats Death in Dual Carriageway Drama
Posted By Freelance Writers Date: 30/04 Posted Under: Animal Charities, Dog NewsAn animal ambulance driver from The Blue Cross pet charity undertook a dramatic dog rescue last week when she spotted a dog dangerously dodging traffic on the highspeed A312 near Feltham, Middlesex.
Tracey Brown was on her way to The Blue Cross animal adoption centre in Southampton when she noticed the dog attempting to cross the busy dual carriageway, where vehicles reach speeds of up to 50 MPH.
Tracey said: “I was driving along and noticed this dog, she kept darting in front of the cars as though she was trying to cross. I knew that if I didn’t stop and catch her she could be killed. I pulled over and managed to get her attention using pet toys I had in the ambulance. She was obviously very frightened but eventually came over to me and I got her safely into the vehicle.”
The friendly crossbreed dog was brought back to The Blue Cross animal hospital in Victoria where she was checked over by a vet. Nurses scanned her for an identifying microchip and were delighted to hear a successful beep. The unique code enabled nurses to find out the dog was called Scooby and a contact address and telephone number to trace the owners.
Frustratingly, the contact details were out of date and so nurses began detective work to track them down another way. The council dog warden in the area where Scooby was found said that a family had been in touch about their missing dog. The description matched Scooby so the owners were finally contacted.
Scooby’s family all came to the Victoria hospital together to fetch Scooby the following day. The family’s three young children were especially ecstatic to be reunited with their adored pet.
Scooby’s owner, Lisa from Hanworth said: ” We were so worried when we couldn’t find Scooby so it was such a relief when The Blue Cross got in touch with us. We were horrified to find out that Scooby had been so close to danger when she got out of our garden. We are really grateful to The Blue Cross for returning her safely to us. In future we will make sure she is always wearing her ID tag when outside, her microchip details are updated and do everything we can to make our garden more secure so that she won’t be at risk again.”
The Blue Cross advises all pet owners to microchip their pets in case they are separated, and ensure that contact details are kept up to date after moving house or a change of name. Dog owners should also make sure their dog is wearing a collar and ID tag, displaying their name and address, if they are in a public place.
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Wednesday, April 30th, 2008 at 4:28 am and is filed under Animal Charities, Dog News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
[...] Dog Cheats Death in Dual Carriageway Drama [...]
Why did this Blue Cross employee not contact the local dog warden forthwith as all finders of dogs have a legal duty to do so?
Is it being a bit too cynical to think that perhaps they saw a photo-opportunity!
How far is Fletham Middlesex from the Blue Cross hospital in Victoria?
Does this mean that the Blue Cross is now going to become some kind of stray dog enforcement agency and help local councils out?
I did think that councils were now the only agency that deal with stray dogs now that the police do not have any further dealings since April.
I would like to reply to Gnashers very cynical view. I did contact the local animal warden who was unable to come and get the dog at the time. I also went to the local police station who would not take the dog on as it was not considered dangerous. I spent approx 1 hour 30 mins trying to find the owners and contact the proper authorities before finally taking her back to the Victoria Hospital. I by no means saw this as a photo opportunity I was just doing my job and actually the photograph that you see was taken by a colleague for my own memorabillia. I find it very hard to believe, and extremely upsetting, that there are people out there who are quick to criticise you for doing your job, what was I supposed to do, leave it to get run over just so that I wasn’t in the magazine?
The Blue Cross are not a stray dog enforcement agency but when the proper authorities are not around to help we are not going to sit back and do nothing if an animals life is in danger.
Hi Tracey,
glad the dogs back with his owners
As your here maybe you could take a look and comment on this post?
http://www.dogmagazine.net/archives/395/exclusive-major-british-animal-charity-in-breed-specific-legislation-controversy/
Tracey
Top marks for preventing the dog from being killed or injured.
0 out of 10 to the local animal warden for not coming out to seize the dog from you, truly appalling.
Sorry if you thought that my post was cynical, I get completly fed up when articles appear from big animal charities (not just the Blue Cross) that seem to make out that they have a big input in dealing with stray dogs and I do not mean after the 7 clear days when they become the property of the council and can be rehomed by the animal charities. I mean the popular misconception that is not really corrected that such charities might deal with stray dogs from finding to rehoming and the grey area of abandoned dogs.
When a person who is not an officer authorised to seize dogs as strays, this includes RSPCA officers and other animal charity workers, the law is simple, they have to contact the council in the area where the dog was found, nothing to do with me Tracey, it is the law!
Thanks for sorting the dog out, but you let a council negate its statutory duty by failing to come and get the dog from you, no wonder dogs disappear all over the place if council’s cannot be bothered to do their duty!
The police no longer deal with strays since 6th April 2008, legislation has come out to deal with that.
If there was ever the need for the Pet Owner Parliament to get involved in checking on the service provision of councils in relation to stray dogs on behalf of those of us who are dog owners then this is a good example.
Nice one Tracey, shame on though is it, London Borough of Hounslow Animal Warden Service, why did they not help you out?
Alison
Your cooking on gas!
Like your post.