This is the approximate route taken by Luna, a dog owned by Daryl and Cindy Anderson. Luna escaped a relative's fenced yard and made her way about three miles toward home before she was killed on railroad tracks near Rockrimmon.
Luna
Some good is coming from the sad story of Luna, the dog who escaped a fenced yard and tried to make her way home only to be killed on the railroad tracks along Monument Creek in Rockrimmon.
Luna’s remains were found by Tom, a Rockrimmon resident, who removed the collar and called Luna’s owners, Daryl and Cindy Anderson, to inform them of Luna’s death.
Tom called the Andersons himself because he said the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region refused to take a “deceased animal” report.
He said HSPPR staff told him to call the Colorado Springs street department to report a dead animal. Tom was outraged and feared Luna’s owners would never know what happened to their pet.
Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region
So he called The Gazette and Luna’s story was the subject of Monday’s Side Streets column. That’s when things happened at HSPPR.
I received an email Monday from Jan McHugh-Smith, president and CEO of the humane society.
She told me she was changing policy immediately to accept dead pet reports and log them in a notebook available for viewing at the society’s Lost and Found Pet area.
Here’s the text of her note to me:
Dear Bill,
After your story was published our currently policies on lost and found pets were reviewed, and we would like to update you and make some corrections to your article entitled: SIDE STREETS: Neighbor helps family get closure for lost pet, questions humane society policy.
Jan McHugh-Smith, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region
From this point forward, the City of Colorado Springs Street Division will directly email their finished work logs (recording dead animal description and location) to our lost and found email. We will be publishing all of the logs in a notebook in our Lost and Found Pets area. This will allow owners to read the logs, and hopefully be able to identify if their pet has been found deceased in the city. We will also match the city work logs with lost animals that have been reported to HSPPR to try to reconnect additional stray pets.
Our call center will also be taking found reports on deceased animals, and will try to combine logs and reports if efforts are found duplicated.
The Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region works diligently to reunited owners with lost companion animals; we reunited 4,199 stray animals last year alone. Tom should be commended in his actions, and his Good Samaritan efforts will bring positive changes in our policies.
Sincerely,
Jan McHugh-Smith
President and CEO
I should note all the good work HSPPP already does on behalf of pets and their owners in the region.
According to the 2010 annual report, the society had 21,100 pets in its care in Colorado Springs.
It handled 7,700 adoptions in addition to the 4,199 reuinted pets and fostered 450 pets.
It’s animal law enforcement unit responded to 24,000 calls for service and conducted 3,800 cruelty investigations.
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CHANGE COMES QUICKLY TO HUMANE SOCIETY is a post from: Side Streets