Freeways and Dogs and Cats

They need our help

I love my dogs.  I spend all day with them.  Mu and Tino are my search dogs, and I work long hours with them.  It is my job to read their behavior and observe them, in order to track down missing cats and dogs.  I have over 100,000 pictures of my dogs on my phone.  I have written several books about my dogs and plan to write many more.  They sleep beside me.  I would not be able to sleep if I didn’t have a snoring dog nearby.  My five dogs are my family.  My three previous dogs are buried in a quiet, peaceful place on the edge of private property near a forest in a local park.  I walk by them every day, and I think about Porter, Tess, and Kelsy every day.  All my dogs are more valuable to me than any possession.

Although most of the people reading this probably love their dogs like I do, in many ways, our society treats dogs as disposable, as trivial pieces of property.  Sometimes we treat them like trash.  When a dog or cat dies on the freeway, the most common procedure for handling those remains is for a truck from the Department of Tranportation to pick up the dog or cat and dispose of them in the same place they take road kill like raccoons and deer.  In most cases, they won’t scan for a microchip or search for an owner of the cat or dog.  They won’t take the body of the dog or cat to the local shelter where an owner would be looking.  If your cat or dog accidentally made it onto the freeway and was killed, you might never know because no attempt would be made to notify you, in most cases.  (At least, this is my understanding, from what I’ve been told and from experience.  If you know otherwise, I would like to be informed.)

I can’t stand the thought of that.  I think, what if it was my dog?  I would want to know what happened.  If my dog was missing, my life would stop until I found him, and I would work night and day to find him.  If I never found my lost dog, my life would be over.  I can’t even imagine if Tino somehow escaped and ran onto a freeway.  Because my job is to find lost pets and I know all the ways they can go missing, I take every possible precaution to keep them safe, but accidents can happen.  What if I was in an accident and was knocked unconscious?  What if Tino ran in panic and was hit and killed?  If I couldn’t find him, and if the Department of Transportation found him, they would take him to an unknown location without notifying me or scanning for his microchip.  I could spend the rest of my life searching for him and never know what happened.  The thought of that makes me crazy, and knowing that it happens regularly to other people’s pets breaks my heart.

Because I love cats and dogs, I find the current policies and practices totally unacceptable.  If I hear of a cat or dog deceased on the side of the freeway, I will go and collect the remains myself, if I’m available.  I have a microchip scanner in the car at all times.  I have picked up several dozen deceased cats and dogs from beside freeways and highways.  In most cases I was able to contact the family and make arrangements for them to recover the body of their lost pet.  If there was no chip or ID tag, I took the body to the shelter with jurisdiction.  Dozens of families learned the fate of their cat or dog, when they would otherwise have been left wondering forever.

The current policy, as far as I understand it, is that if a motorist calls 911 to report a deceased pet on the freeway, dispatch notifies State Patrol or the Department of Transportation, or both.  State Patrol seems to have a protocol where they move a body farther away from the lanes of travel, usually out of sight behind a guardrail or in the tall grass.  Last week, I responded to a report of a young German Shepherd hit and killed on Highway 18 in Auburn, and the only way I was able to find her in the tall grass was by finding the blood stain where she died and looking out from there to find where State Patrol had put her out of sight. If the Department of Transportation gets to the body first, they will put a body in the back of the truck and transport, so I’ve been told, to state or county land where there is no public access. Bodies of deer, coyotes, raccoons, dogs, and cats are all dumped in the same location.  Animal control does not respond to deceased pets on the freeway.  It is considered outside their jurisdiction, for reasons unknown to me.

Things are probably done this way because that’s the way things have always been done.  I’m sure there are safety reasons why State Patrol and DOT remove a pet’s body quickly and quietly, to avoid motorists pulling over to investigate and potentially getting hit by another car.  Maybe pets just aren’t a priority when it is their job to protect the safety of humans.  Whatever the reasons are, it would not take too much extra effort to handle the remains of people’s pets, their beloved family members, with proper respect.  I’m sure at least half of all the State Troopers and DOT drivers have pets, and if their pets were missing, they would want to know what happened.  They probably aren’t happy with the idea of their cat or dog ending up in an unknown dump site.  If WSP, DOT, and ACO’s would work together, a dog or cat could be properly attended to without a lot of extra effort or expense.  If a cat or dog ends up being collected by the DOT truck, they could simply call Animal Control, and arrange to meet to transfer the body.  That DOT truck is often parked at an on ramp, ready to respond to an accident in rush hour traffic.  The Animal Control truck could come and meet them there, or at the depot where they park the trucks at night.  If needed, my nonprofit rescue would be happy to help with transportation or equipment or supplies, or facilitate in other ways. I’m sure other nonprofit rescues would be willing to help.

I am happy to discuss this issue with any of the stakeholders.  I am sure we can come up with a workable solution that protects human safety as much as possible while still providing respectful care for the deceased family members of taxpaying citizens.  If any ACO, WSP, or DOT worker would like to start a private dialogue with me, to work towards a safe and effective solution, you can email me at james.branson.206@gmail.com

Until policies are changed, I will continue to respond to reports of a deceased dog or cat on the freeway, and I will help them whenever I can.  I don’t like being out there.  I feel like at any moment, someone could be looking at their iPhone and swerve into me.  I take precautions, stay alert, position myself strategically and get off the freeway as quick as I can.  I can’t, however, just sit by and do nothing while someone loses the opportunity to find out what happened to their beloved family member.  I love my dogs too much to just ignore someone else’s dog or cat in that situation.   

You can help solve this problem by sharing this article with someone you know, possibly with someone in a position to help change the way things are done.