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Woman upset at disposal fee for dead cat
A Good Samaritan who took a dead cat to the vet was left angry after being asked to pay a "disposal" fee.
Deepdale trainee solicitor Sara-Jayne Pritt, of Isherwood Street, found the animal lying on the side of the pavement in nearby Skeffington Road on Thursday, February 25.
But instead of ignoring the cat's corpse, she picked it up and followed advice to take it to the nearest vet.
Because she was working, the 25-year-old asked her sister Gemma Pritt and dad David Pritt to take the cat to Vets4Pets in Moor Lane.
But she says that after the vet discovered the animal was not microchipped and the owner could not be located, he demanded a disposal fee of 12 from her family, which was later reduced to 5, with the vet insisting the pair take the dead animal home with them if it was not paid.
Mr Pritt paid the fee but his solicitor daughter wrote a letter to Vets4Pets complaining at the charge.
She wrote: "For my family to involve themselves in such an honourable deed to find themselves being asked for a 5 disposal fee when the cat did not belong to us is disgraceful – but to be told that if she didn't pay the fee she would have to take the dead cat away with her is absolutely disgusting.
"It is not surprising that people walk on by and leave suffering and deceased animals by the roadside if they think they are going to be accountable for the fee and the charge involved."
She told the Evening Post: "I was so angry. I was really shocked with what happened and find it disgusting. I should not be charged for being a Good Samaritan and taking the animal to the vet."
Miss Pritt, who owns six cats herself, was also shocked that no-one in Deepdale had reacted to the deceased cat sooner.
She said: "The cat was stiff – it had been there for a long time. People had walked by it and were walking in the road.
"When I was stood there with the cat, crying my eyes out – and it wasn't even my cat – people didn't even acknowledge me."
She was given advice to take the cat to the vet by a surgeon who operated on one of her own cats, who was also found lying in Skeffington Road after being hit by a car last year.
Miss Pritt called the surgeon, who used to work at the Vets4Pets surgery, about the dead cat and he advised her to take it to his former surgery so the animal could be identified, if it was microchipped, and disposed of safely.
A Preston Council spokesman said she could have called the authority to have the animal removed for free.
He said: "If the council receives a call about a dead animal on the highway the street cleansing team will deal with this as part of their work.
"So yes, if she had called us it would have been removed at no cost to her."
Despite repeated attempts to contact them, Vets4Pets were unavailable for comment.
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Weather for Preston
Thursday 09 February 2012
Today
Light sleet
Temperature: 1 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: South east
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Light sleet
Temperature: -3 C to 3 C
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