A woman was left speechless after a her cat's body was "disposed" of.
Katie Roche's cat Loki went out one morning but had not returned home. By the evening, Katie posted online urging people to keep an eye out for her much-loved two-year-old pet.
Tragically, Katie found out Loki had apparently been hit by a car and had died after being found on Laird Street. Katie said a woman had been in touch on the Wednesday evening to say she had found Loki, but that street cleaners had picked up his body.
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On Thursday morning, the Birkenhead woman rang around local vets and kennels to see where the workers had dropped his body off to be scanned, but she was receiving no information. Until a phone call from the council confirmed Loki's body had been "disposed of".
Katie told the ECHO: "He just hadn't come home that morning or in the night so I started to get worried. I threw a post up [on Facebook] as you do and someone commented saying they think he's been run over.
"A lovely lady took a picture and sent it to me, said she arrived on Laird Street around 7am and seen him and the street cleaners came around 8am and picked his body up and left. They are meant to take him to get scanned but he hadn't been handed in anywhere.
"I called the council again but he hadn't been handed in there. They called me again and told me they had just disposed of his body. They said if it's bloody they will dispose of it but he had a collar on, he wasn't a stray and he was microchipped. It's disgusting.
"It's upsetting. Imagine all other cat owners they've done this to and the owners don't even know. But surely they should contact the owners."
Loki has been part of Katie's family since he was around seven weeks old as she said it was "devastating" not knowing where he was or what happened to him. She added: "It's a nightmare.
"It doesn't seem real, he was such a big character. I've got four cats, but he was the biggest character, really sensitive. His brother is lost without him and is walking around crying.
"Cats are quite wild but keep them safe, keep an eye on them. He was microchipped and even had a name on his collar, how can they do that, treat them like trash? There should be the same rules as a dog, they need to contact owners."
A Biffa spokesperson said: "We understand the loss of a much-loved pet is really difficult, so we're really sorry we didn't take Loki to be scanned so he could be reunited with his owner.
"This was a genuine mistake, and we'll do everything we can to make sure this doesn't happen again."
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