Heartless? Insensitive? Cruel? Incompetent -- obviously.
There are a lot of adjectives to describe the inappropriate and incorrect actions of the former peace officer who participated in the recent capture and euthanasia of a resident's cat.
Our sympathy goes out to the Piesse family, as we know from our own past sad experiences that losing a pet is like losing a part of your family.
Shame on the town for not handling this whole episode properly. Excerpts from an online job description for a Community Peace Officer, Level 1, for Innisfail states four times that a bylaw officer must have knowledge of, or experience, working with municipal bylaws. It also states that a peace officer should have excellent interpersonal skills and communication. Why was this peace officer so lax?
We may be pet owners but are not criminals -- we even pick up our dog waste -- and nor were the Piesses. They were actively looking for their cat.
As far as the town's comment in the Innisfail Province (June 26) about cats wearing "a licence tag on an appropriate collar" we bought six collars and extra tags for our cat who kept losing the whole works by slipping its collar off.
The Piesse cat (Mikey) was microchipped. How long would it have taken to check that? That's the purpose of microchipping, which is very expensive and not pleasant for the cat.
If the town can't be bothered checking a microchip why are they sponsoring free microchip clinics?
We fear for our cats' lives now if they get out accidentally, even though the town claims this was an isolated incident.
Will our cats be destroyed next?
Linda Scott and Katie Malsbury
Innisfail
