A FAMILY has been left distraught after a council dumped their pet cat in a landfill site.

Lauren Fox, from Brandon in County Durham, made the discovery after trying to find out what happened to her cat Sidney, who went missing earlier this month.

The Northern Echo:

Lauren and Sharon Fox, whose cat Sidney was dumped in landfill by a Durham County Council employee

Sidney was run over and killed not far from their home but when he was picked up by a member of Durham County Council’s cleansing team he ended up being dumped in a landfill site instead of being checked to see if he had a microchip.

Ms Fox, 22, who adopted Sidney four years ago after he was dumped on a neighbour’s doorstep as a kitten, said: “I was sickened when I found out. I work at a vets myself and deal with animals every day. I was crying all day.

“It’s our family pet and it’s awful to think that he was just treated like rubbish.”

Durham County Council has now apologised for the way it disposed of the cat and said it had reminded the cleansing team of the correct procedure for picking up dead animals.

Ms Fox, who works as an auxilliary nurse, made the discovery after being told a cat similar to Sidney had been spotted on the roadside near Meadowfield British Legion last Thursday.

Sharon Fox, her mother, immediately went to see if the cat was Sidney but on arriving learned he had been picked up by Durham County Council earlier that morning.

Ms Fox said: “We were absolutely frantic and contacted the council straight away which they informed us that once the drivers get back to the depot they would contact us.

“All we wanted was to bring Sidney back home to lay his body to rest.”

After making further enquiries it emerged Sidney was picked up and left in the back of a van overnight before being dumped the next day.

She added: “Sidney was microchipped and the man who picked him up did not follow any procedures, if he did, Sidney would be back home where he belonged."

Oliver Sherratt, head of direct services at Durham County Council said: “Unfortunately our cleansing teams do have the difficult job of picking up a number of road casualty dead animals from the county’s roads.

“We recognise that many of these can be peoples’ pets and know how upsetting that is for everyone so we would usually check to see if they are microchipped and find the owner to return the remains. If this can’t be done, we keep the remains for a week to see if we are contacted by anyone who has lost their pet.

“Due to an oversight, in this instance our usual processes were not followed and we are very sorry that the family’s report to us didn’t result in us being able to recover their pet’s remains in time. We have spoken with Ms Fox in person to offer our sincere apologies and are reminding all cleansing staff of the procedures in place.”