LITTLE ROCK, AR - The City of Little Rock is looking at the idea of creating a lost and found for dead pets. It comes after pet owners started pushing for additional information in case their dog or cat goes missing.
Four weeks without Bernie. Nancy Compton has posted flyers throughout her Fair Park neighborhood, but has heard nothing since June 27.
"Oh, it's been horrible, horrible," Compton says. "I don't have any idea."
She's even checked the city of Little Rock Animal Village
website. It lists pages of pets picked up so owners can find their missing dog or cat or be put out for adoption.
But Compton says something is missing.
"I was even called out to look at a (dog) body but it wasn't him," Compton says.
That's because there's no online listing for missing pets that may have been hit by a vehicle or met some other demise.
"I'd like to know I haven't been looking in vain for a month," Compton says.
Tracy Roark is the manager of the Little Rock Animal Village. He says he understands the desire for more specific, if somewhat macabre, information for pet owners.
"It's something that we definitely need to look at maybe doing better."
Roark says street department employees pick up more than 70% of dead animals. Right now the street department and the animal services department don't share information.
"What we would have to do is somehow coordinate with them to get all the information so we can put it into our system."
Tracy Roark says he plans to forward the idea up to city hall soon. In the meantime he recommends owners tag and microchip their pet, something Compton says she regrets not doing for Bernie.
"If something has happened to the dog you want to know it and you want to have closure," Compton says.
Roark says most likely street department workers would be equipped with forms listing identifiable information. That would include what type of animal, color and where it was found.
