A CONCERNED cat owner believes that pets are being treated like 'rubbish' when they are found by some Cumbrian councils.

Mandy Lowe believes that stray cats should be checked for their microchips when they are found on the road.

Ms Lowe's petition has been targeting councils with a petition to make sure that pets are scanned when they are found by council workers, including Eden and Copeland.

"If your cat goes missing or gets found injured somewhere then the owner can be notified," Ms Lowe, who lives in Stourbridge, said. "But the authorities are not even scanning them so there doesn’t seem much point in microchipping."

The issue is one that it close to Ms Lowe's heart after her own cat went missing four years ago.

"Snowy went missing and one of my neighbours said he was last seen by a road," she said. "I rang my council and put up posters up but my council didn’t keep a record of colour or a general description so they were saying if he has been picked up by the street cleaning team we wouldn’t be able to tell you.

"I was a bit angry that he could just be disposed off as a bag of rubbish."

A spokesperson for Eden District Council said: "Eden District Council is the responsible authority for collecting dead animals from the roadside. When we are notified of a dead cat that requires removal we do check to see if the animal has been microchipped to help identify its owner."

And a Copeland Council spokesperson said that it was not normal policy to check dead animals for microchips but if the time and resources were available then they would do so.

Ultimately, Ms Lowe hopes that there will be a change in legislation so that councils are required to scan animals that street cleaners find.

"I’ve spoke to loads of people who have had their animals disposed of in bins," Ms Lowe said. "You bring up these animals, you spend thousands on them and they’re part of your family. They’re an extension of people’s families and somebody can just come along and throw them away like they’re nothing."